Seuteu (2023)

• 85%
• 2023
• Yana Dombrowsky-M'Baye

Hands turn slowly, releasing the sole recording of his voice into the air — Glimpses of what a mother saw through the viewfinder of her 8mm camera as she filmed her daughters in the years following their father's departure — Daughters, aglow in a purple afternoon, picking flowers amid the brush — The Mediterranean sea, golden — The Atlantic sea, blue — Hands, revealing a silvered talisman — The Moon, who has been watching — The Sun, who has been watching — The inexplicable softness with which things occur once the Sun has passed the horizon — Voices, telling stories, singing, calling for her as she searches for traces of her grandfather in present-day Sénégal. Filmed across Tournon-sur-Rhône, Aix-en-Provence and Dakar, Dombrowsky-M'Baye's Seuteu unravels an archaeology of her matrilineal ancestry. Carried by the air, we drift in and over homes, bodies of water, landscapes and atmospheres – contemplating the space between memory and lived experience.