22/06/2023 - The 6th feature film from the winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the 2017 Berlinale is produced by Les Films du Worso and SRAB Films, and will be sold by The Party Film Sales

Director Alain Gomis (© Festival de Cine Africano Tarifa Tánger FCAT)

After beginning on 2 May in Guinea-Bissau, filming on Dao by Alain Gomis will conclude tomorrow in the Paris region. This is the 6th feature film from the director, after L'Afrance (winner of the 2001 Leopard for Best Feature Debut in Locarno), Andalucia [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] (in Venice’s Giornate degli Autori in 2007), Today [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] (in competition at the 2012 Berlinale), Félicité [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Alain Gomis
film profile] (winner of the 2017 Grand Jury Prize in Berlin) and the documentary Rewind & Play [+see also:
film review
interview: Alain Gomis
film profile] (in Forum at the 2022 Berlinale). Heading the cast is Béa Mendy.

Written by Alain Gomis, the script centres on Gloria, who is marrying her daughter in the Paris banlieue today. Not long ago, in Guinea-Bissau, she was attending the ceremony which consecrated her dead father as an ancestor. From one ceremony to the other, between past and present, life and death, reality and fiction, Gloria reconciles with her history, finds her place, and knows a moment of peace… 

Produced by Sylvie Pialat and Benoît Quainon for Les films du Worso and by Christophe Barral and Toufik Ayadi for SRAB Films, Dao is co-produced by the Senegalese companies Yennenga and Nafi Films, and by Telecine Bissau Produçoes (Guinea-Bissau). Pre-bought by Canal+, Ciné+, Canal+ International and TV5, the feature film is also supported by the advance on receipts from the CNC, the Images de la Francophonie fund, Arte/Cofinova, as well as the Cinécap, Indéfilms, Cinéventure and Cofinova Soficas. The four weeks of filming took place from 2 to 12 May in Guinea-Bissau, then from 15 to 23 June in the Yvelines, with Céline Bozon (nominated for the 2017 Lumière award for her work on Félicité) as director of photography. French distribution will be handled by Jour2Fête and sales by The Party Film Sales.

(Translated from French)