Nandi is a black South African girl living under the rule of Apartheid. Violence, desperate energy, a wild passion for learning and liberation through knowledge, encounters of love and compassion. The convulsive present of Africa, its past made of misery and magic, its future, "inevitably better" meet on Nandi's path. We follow her from childhood to reaching adulthood, among the landscapes and figures in her life, as she goes through South Africa, Ivory Coast, Mali and Namibia "where the earth seems to have originated". Little by little, Nandi discovers her continent and her own reality as an African woman.


When we wake up in the morning, the mountains are blue on the horizon. Such are our dreams, or this is the way we would want them to be: blue and pure, pregnant with hopes and expectations for the future. We will build tomorrow's houses not with stone and iron, but with love, but with a sublimated love for our world and all it holds: man and animals, stones and trees. And we will walk upright, proud and serene, into clear sunrises and starry nights, sparkling like diamonds with their myriads of stars. Hate and exterminations from centuries immemorial will be forgotten. So those who should never have been set apart will be brought together again: men, creations of nature."
Souleymane Cissé



Countries : France / Mali / Burkina Faso
Language (french, english subtitles) : Bamana (Bambara), english, french


Actors
Linéo TSOLO (Nandi)
Sidi Yaya CISSE (Solofa)
Mary TWALA (Grandmother)
Eric MIYENI (The father)
Mariama Amerou MOHAMED DICKO (Nandi at 6 years)
Nakedi RIBANE (The mother)
Balla Moussa KEITA (Teacher)
Adam ROSE (Killer Policeman)
Niamanto SANOGO (Rastas' prophet)
Aïcha Amerou Mohamed Dicko
Siradje Cissé
Vusi KUNENE
Martin LE MAITRE




Credits
Souleymane CISSE Director
Souleymane CISSE Script and Dialogue
Gheorghy RERBERG Cinematography
Vincenzo MARANO Cinematography
Jean-Jacques BOUHON Cinematography
Alexi RODIONOV (ou RADIONOV) Cinematography
Alexi
Joseph KPOBLY Set Designer
Angela Halle: Production Designer
Bill Jacques: Sound Mixer
Daniel Ollivier: Sound Mixer
Patrice Mendez: Sound Mixer
Bruno COULAIS Original Music
D. POLLECUT Music
Groupe KIYI Music
Kalory SORY Music
Andrée DAVANTURE Film Editor

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Associate Producer :
Daniel Toscan du Plantier

Co-production :
Arte France Cinéma (La Sept Cinéma)
TSH
Pathé Renn Productions
Carthago Films
Erato Films

Foreign production company :
FILMS CISSE (LES) (Sissé Filimu, Mali)
DIPROCI (Burkina Faso)

Production Manager :
Emmanuel Toko

French Distribution :
Pathé Distribution


Press Attaché (Film) :
Agnès Chabot

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Feature film, Fiction

Language(s) :
Bamana (Bambara), English, French

Country :
Majority French (FRANCE, MALI, BURKINA FASO, NAMIBIE)

Production year :
1995

French release: :
07/06/1995

Running time :
2h20

CNC Visa Number :
77.567

CNC Visa issued on :
10/05/1995

CNC Approval :
Yes

Color :
Couleur

Production format :
35 mm

Screening format :
35 mm

Frame :
1,66

Sound format :
Mono




FESTIVALS / AWARDS / TELEVISIONS

Festival de Cannes 1995 (CANNES, France)
> Nominated Golden Palm