Camp de Thiaroye (1987)

User Rating:

7.6/10   

Directors:

Ousmane Sembene
Thierno Faty Sow

Writers:

Ousmane Sembene (dialogue)
Ousmane Sembene (screenplay)
(more)

Genre:

Drama | War

Plot:

In this semi-autobiographical film, black soldiers help to defend France, but are detained in prison camp before being repatriated home. |

Plot Keywords:

France | Soldier | Free French | WWII In Africa | Race Relations

Awards:

6 wins

Cast

Sidiki Bakaba
Hamed Camara
Philippe Chamelat
Ismaila Cissé
Moussa Cissoko
Eloi Coly
Innocence Coly
Camara Med Dansogho
Eric Dudoit
Marcel Duplouy
Marie-Ève Duplouy
Charles Estifian
Laurent Kuntz
Ismaël Lô		(as Ismaila Lo)
Pierre Londiche
Lamine Mane
André Massoni
Gerard Maxent
Marthe Mercadier
El Hadg Ndiaye
Thierno Ndiaye
Oumarou Neino
Daniel Odimbossoukou
Pierre Orma
John Peterson
Leopoldine Robert
Adama Samboa
Ibrahim Sane
Jean-Daniel Simon
Gustave Sorgho
Ababacar Sy Cissé
Gabriel Zahon
Koffi Saturnin Zinga
Casimir Zoba

Directed by
Ousmane Sembene
Thierno Faty Sow

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Ousmane Sembene		dialogue
Ousmane Sembene		screenplay
Thierno Faty Sow		dialogue
Thierno Faty Sow		screenplay

Produced by
Mustafa Ben Jemja	....	producer
Ouzid Dahmane	....	producer
Mamadou Mbengue	....	producer

Original Music by
Ismaël Lô		(as Ismaila Lo)

Cinematography by
Smaïl Lakhdar-Hamina

Film Editing by
Kahéna Attia		(as Kahena Attia-Riveill)

Makeup Department
Nadia Bensekar	....	chief makeup artist

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Ouzid Dahmane	....	assistant director
Clarence Thomas Delgado	....	assistant director
Amadou Thior	....	assistant director

Sound Department
Rachid Bouafia	....	sound engineer
Hachim Joulak	....	sound mixer

Other crew
Yamina Kessur	....	script girl

Production Companies

• Enaproc
• Films Domireew
• Films Kajoor
• Satpec
• Société Nouvelle Pathé Cinéma

Distributors

• New Yorker Films (1990) (USA) (subtitled)

Also Known As:

The Camp at Thiaroye

Runtime:

Netherlands:147 min | West Germany:150 min (Berlin Film Festival) | USA:157 min

Country:

Algeria | Senegal | Tunisia

Language:

French | Wolof

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Company:

Enaproc

Movie Connections:

References Le corbeau (1943)

Sembene takes us to the battlefield

Camp de Thiaroye by Senegalese Director is a war movie without a war. Set on an army post in Senegal towards the final days of WWII, it follows a regiment of the French West African Armed Forces who have returned from a tour of duty in Europe. The story is an allegory for the resistance movement to colonialism that sprung up after the war and led to the end of colonialism. Often bloody, it captures the relationship between American soldiers stationed in Dakar, French commanding officers and the French West Africans while touching on issues of racism, inferiority complex and black on black relationships. Never one to lead the audience, Sembene takes his time staging scenes often with beautiful framing that eats up the edges of the screen. It may leisure and some scenes are didactic but it never wavers in its utmost honesty and its eventual humanism resulting from a cataclysmic ending that is both gripping that echoes the refrain that maybe we are all crazy. It is one of the better movies of this master of cinema and in this reviewer's opinion, a 10/10.