The Dawn
Alicia Mendy | Senegal, Switzerland | 2024 | 30'
IN COLLABORATION WITH
Screenings
Thu 27 March H 18:30
Section
Original title
Beutset
Synopsis
In a Dakar plunged into a dystopian future, a parasite has contaminated the city’s drinking water. Alioune, a young man without resources, cannot afford the pills that fight the effects of the contamination and begins to show the symptoms of infection: madness and dementia. Yet, as time passes, he experiences an unexpected lucidity, giving the start of a journey of political and spiritual awakening.
Cast
Iman Djionne
Films Distribution
Sudu Connexion
Production
Amka Films Production
Editing
Alicia Mendy
Cinematography
Diara Sow
Editing
Léa Porretta
Language
Wolof
Subtitles
Italian, English
Premiere
Italian Première in collaboration with Consulate General of Switzerland in Milano
Main awards
Best Direction – Ex aequo (Festival Curta Cinema, Rio de Janeiro International Short Film Festival 2024), Best Swiss Student Film, Industry Award (Internationale Kurzfilmtage Winterthur 2023)
Biography
Alicia Mendy is a young Swiss director born in Lausanne in 2000 to a Senegalese father and an Italian mother. Graduating from HEAD – Genève, Haute école d'art et de design, she is interested in a cinema that represents and valorizes African and Afro-descendant peoples through the fantasy and science-fiction genres. Spirituality is central to her work, which explores utopias and dystopias. She also composes film music.
Filmography
2024 - The Dawn, sf