Rising Senegalese Filmmaker Mamadou Dia on Grief, Trauma and ‘Indigenous Ways’ of Healing in Berlin Encounters Premiere ‘Demba’
variety.comChristopher Vourlias A lonely widower wrestling with the loss of his wife finds himself in the thralls of a mental health crisis, setting the stage for a moving tale of grief and acceptance in Mamadou Dia’s “Demba,” which premieres Feb.
17 in the Encounters section at the Berlin Film Festival. “Demba” follows its titular protagonist, an archivist in a provincial Senegalese town being nudged toward an early retirement after nearly 30 years in the civil service.
A stubborn, irascible widower nicknamed “grumpy” by the locals, he struggles to accept the loss of his wife as the two-year anniversary of her death approaches.
Estranged from his son, staring down his professional obsolescence as part of a digitization push by the local government, his mental health begins to deteriorate.
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