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Juste un mouvement

Just A Movement
Forum 2021
In photos of Paris from the late 1960s, he can be seen in the crowd, not far from Daniel Cohn-Bendit. In Nanterre, he’s a philosophy student and activist. He would rather read Foucault than Mao’s Little Red Book, which doesn’t prevent Jean-Luc Godard from giving him the role of a Mao exegete in La chinoise.
Just as Omar Blondin Diop’s brief life played out across several different levels, Vincent Meessen also layers the materials that make up Juste un mouvement. Shot/reverse shot stitches together past and present; Paris, Dakar and Peking provide the geographical framework; Godard’s signature colours of red and blue, the re-enactment of scenes from La chinoise and Chinese “soft-power” endeavours in contemporary Senegal are all smoothly folded into the mix. The uppermost level of the film, though, is dialectic of the most sinister sort: Léopold Sédar Senghor, of all people, poet and president of the independent Senegal, proponent of Négritude, persecutes his political enemies. In 1973, Diop dies at an outrageously young age, in the Gorée prison off the coast of Senegal.
This moving film understands the stagnation that results when the promise of freedom tips over into repression.
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by Vincent Meessen
with Dialo Blondin Diop, Ousman Blondin Diop, Marie-Thérèse Diedhiou, Alioune Paloma Sall, Bouba Diallo, Cheikh Hamalah Blondin Diop, Felwine Sarr, Malal Almamy Tall, Fi Lu, Doudou Fall Belgium / France 2021 French, Wolof, Mandarin 110' Colour

Part of the Berlinale Summer Special

With

  • Dialo Blondin Diop
  • Ousman Blondin Diop
  • Marie-Thérèse Diedhiou
  • Alioune Paloma Sall
  • Bouba Diallo
  • Cheikh Hamalah Blondin Diop
  • Felwine Sarr
  • Malal Almamy Tall
  • Fi Lu
  • Doudou Fall

Crew

Written and Directed by Vincent Meessen
Cinematography Vincent Pinckaers
Editing Simon Arazi
Sound Design Laszlo Umbreit
Sound Laszlo Umbreit
Assistant Director Mamadou Khouma Gueye
Producers Geneviève De Bauw, Vincent Meessen
Co-Producers Olivier Marboeuf, Javier Packer-Comyn, Samuel Feller
Co-Production SPECTRE production Rennes
CBA Brüssel
Magellan films Brüssel

Produced by

Thank You & Good Night productions

Jubilee

Photos

Berlinale Meets | Interview

Vincent Meessen

© Wali Issa Lee

Born in 1971 in Baltimore, Maryland, USA. He studied journalism and cultural policy and works as a filmmaker, visual artist and author in Brussels. His artistic works are presented internationally at festivals and in exhibitions.

Filmography

2005 N12°13.062'/WOO1°32.619'Extended; 9 min. 2006 De Vennoten / Les sociétaires; 9 min. · The Invisible's Parliament; 5 min. 2007 Made in Belgium; 3 min. 2009 Dear Advisor; 8 min. · Vita Nova; 28 min. 2015 One.Two.Three; 35 min. 2018 Ultramarine; 42 min. 2020 Quelle que soit la longueur de la nuit; 78 min.

Bio- & filmography as of Berlinale 2021