Au cimetière de la pellicule

The Cemetery of Cinema
The 1953 film Mouramani by Mamadou Touré is believed to be the first film ever made in Guinea. Interested in the conditions of its production – and the whereabouts of a film print – Thierno Souleymane Diallo sets out to find people who can tell him about the film’s history and its reception. Shots of the young filmmaker himself run like a thread through the film. Equipped with a video camera, microphone and headphones, he travels through the country, sometimes on the back of a donkey, sometimes barefoot, and films everything he experiences on the road and during his conversations with archivists and those who remember the period. Increasingly, the film turns into a journey through Guinea’s film history that takes him to deserted cinema halls and abandoned film archives. In the process, it alternates between observational scenes of everyday life, performative elements and re-enactments. The result is a multi-layered portrait of a country that is thought to have played a pioneering role in African cinema, but which is only slowly rediscovering the importance of films and film archives for its cultural identity and its history.
by Thierno Souleymane Diallo France / Senegal / Guinea / Saudi Arabia 2023 French, Pulaar, Eastern Maninkakan 93’ Colour World premiere | Debut film | Documentary Form

Crew

Director Thierno Souleymane Diallo
Cinematography Leïla Chaïbi, Thierno Souleymane Diallo
Editing Aurélie Jourdan, Marianne Haroche
Music Dom Peter
Sound Design Brice Kartmann
Sound Ophélie Boully, Jean-Marie Salque
Assistant Director Didier Dematons
Producers Maud Martin, Jean-Pierre Lagrange, Marie-Louise Sarr, Alpha Amadou Diouldé Diallo
Co-Production Lyon Capitale TV Lyon
Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Cinéma Villeurbanne
Red Sea Fund Dschidda

Produced by

Lagune Productions

Le grenier des ombres

Thierno Souleymane Diallo

The filmmaker was born in Guinea and studied at the Institut Supérieur des Arts de Guinée (ISAG) in Dubréka. In 2012, he moved to Niger to study documentary and then graduated with a degree in documentary cinema in Senegal. After making several short films during his studies, he directed Un homme pour ma famille and Nô Mëtî Sîfâdhe, two mid-length documentaries. Au cimetière de la pellicule is his debut feature-length film.

Filmography

2015 Un homme pour ma famille; medium-length documentary 2018 Nô Mëtî Sîfâdhe; medium-length documentary 2023 Au cimetière de la pellicule (The Cemetery of Cinema); documentary

Bio- & filmography as of Berlinale 2023