To Commune 10: Ousmane Sembène and Thierno Faty Sow

Camp de Thiaroye | Ousmane Sembène and Thierno Faty Sow, Senegal/Algeria/Tunisia, 154 min, 1988

Camp de Thiaroye, written and directed by Ousmane Sembène and Thierno Faty Sow, is based on real events and on the filmmakers’ own experiences. At the end of the Second World War, a regiment of soldiers from many nations in the West American Armed Forces return to an army post in Senegal. During the war, they were sent to fight in the European fronts where they risked life and faced death on a daily basis. Despite returning to the army post as war heroes, Camp de Thiaroye tells a story of white oppression resuming against the African men. In the camp, they now face indignities and racism from the very French that they helped to liberate from fascism. This epic political drama deals with injustice, hypocrisy, colonialism, racism, and powerfully portrays people’s collective experience of coming to political consciousness under unpredictable circumstances. Their resistance culminates in a massacre. 

Restored by The Film Foundation’s World Cinema Project and Cineteca di Bologna at L’Immagine Ritrovata laboratory in association with the Tunisian Ministry of Culture and the Senegalese Ministry of Culture and Historical Heritage. Special thanks to Mohammed Challouf. Restoration funded by the Hobson/Lucas Family Foundation. This restoration is part of the African Film Heritage Project, an initiative created by The Film Foundation’s World Cinema Project, the Pan African Federation of Filmmakers and UNESCO – in collaboration with Cineteca di Bologna – to help locate, restore, and disseminate African cinema.