Section: Short Films
Country: Senegal
Production Year: 2012
Runtime: 54 Minutes
Director: Ousmane William Mbaye
Screenwriter: Ousmane William Mbaye
Cinematographers: Stéphane de Trébonds, Jacques Pamart, Xavier Vauthrin
Editor: Laurence Attali
Music Composer: Amadou Doukouré
Synopsis: On December 17, 1962, Mamadou Dia, President of the Senegalese Council of Ministers, was arrested and then given a life sentence, being accused of a coup d’état by his friend and companion Leopold Sedar Senghor. Dia would be imprisoned with four of his closest ministers including Joseph Mbaye, Minister of Rural Economy, who was the filmmaker’s uncle. The following day, the Constitution was modified, and the parliamentary system was succeeded by a presidential system, giving Senghor full powers. Fifty years later, while the presidential campaign of 2012 agitates the country around the values of democracy, actors and witnesses of the events of 1962 take the stand.