Dakar

Documentary | 2017 | HD | 44 minutes

DAKAR - West Africa on the move

Dakar. 2.5 million inhabitants, magnet and juggernaut, cultural melting pot, port city and gateway to the world. In the capital of Senegal fashion is made, music recorded, art exhibited. For all of West Africa, the metropolis on the Atlantic is the traffic and trade cross.
 
Dakar is modern in a very own, African way. This is shown by the people the movie introduces. The women are independent and proud. This applies to the only black surfer in the country as well as to the fashion designer or the fisherman's wife on the city beach. The film accompanies young street performers and rappers and shows that Dakar's joie de vivre and struggle for survival are not mutually exclusive. On the offshore island Gorée, an old trading post, which is now a World Heritage Site, we visit the island gardener. On Gorée, the old Dakar is still alive, on the city beaches along the Corniche meets the youth, also for wrestling, the national sport. The film accompanies a young wrestler from training to the decisive fight.
With Dakar, the film shows a cosmopolitan and liberal metropolis in which life pulsates, around the clock. The mobile cinema begins its performance after dark, later in the evening the women meet to dance, and in the early morning hours the clubs open. Then they danced to the Mbalax, mixing West African rhythms with Western music styles like blues or funk. The concerts last until sunrise.