The Dawn
When a parasite contaminates all the drinking water of Dakar, pills are created to neutralize it. Alioune, a young man, can no longer afford them and is exposed to the symptoms of the parasite: madness and dementia. As the days go by, he realizes that he has never been so lucid, and he begins a journey of political and spiritual awakening.
Directors Spotlight
Alicia Mendy
Director
Alicia Mendy is a young director focusing on genre cinema in Senegal. After starting a Bachelor’s degree in sociology, she redirected her studies towards her lifelong passion: cinema. An alumnus of HEAD-Geneva, she is interested in cinema that represents and valorizes African and Afro-descendant peoples through the fantasy and science-fiction genres. African spiritualities and oral traditions are an essential part of her short films, which explore utopias and dystopias. She also composes her own film scores, ranging from classical to electro and Afro rhythms. Alicia Mendy is a young Swiss director born in Lausanne in 2000 to a Senegalese father and an Italian mother. Graduating from HEAD in 2023, 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.
- Runtime
- 29 minutes
- Country
- Switzerland, Senegal
- Language
- Wolof
- Director
- Alicia Mendy
- Cast
- Baye Diagne, Cheikh Oumar Diaw, Mame Fatou Sene, Moussa Thiam, Moustapha Ngom
- Cinematographer
- Diara Sow
- Co Producer
- HEAD Genève, Dept Cinema, Nicolas Wadimoff & Delphine Jeanneret
- Editor
- Léa Porretta
- Music
- Alicia Mendy / SEKZY
- Producer
- Rhea Plangg
- Screenwriter
- Alicia Mendy
- Sound Design
- Ousmane Coly
- Premiere
- North America