The Japan Times - 'So Long a Letter': Angele Diabang's Hollywood-defying Senegalese hit

Director Angele Diabang's film "So Long a Letter", a film based on one of Senegal's best-known novels, spent the last few months battling the likes of "Jurassic World: Rebirth", "F1" and "Superman" for cinematic dominance in Dakar -- and climbed its way to the top.

For a French-language movie about polygamy, female friendship and the place of women in west African society, its success was not a given.

At Pathe Dakar, where it debuted, "So Long a Letter" ("Une si longue lettre") remained at the top of the box office throughout July and August, Diabang said.

With many African countries having no more than one or two cinemas that screen new releases, each box office count is meaningful.

In Senegal, where there are approximately five such cinemas, all in the capital, "So Long a Letter" screened at two of the biggest.

That the movie could beat out multi-million-dollar franchises with Senegalese audiences was "truly a wonderful surprise", Diabang, 46, told AFP from her Dakar office.

Her movie, she said, provides proof that "a film with entirely Senegalese -- African -- content can really draw so many viewers, can succeed even against American blockbusters, even though the budgets are completely different".

"So Long a Letter", a 1979 epistolary novel by author Mariama Ba, tells the story of Ramatoulaye Fall, a woman who is blindsided when her husband takes a younger, second wife.

In a series of letters to a friend, Ramatoulaye reflects on her life's path, in a tale with multiple themes including the conflict between tradition and modernity.

- 'Make it work' -

The film has now hit 16 cinemas across French-speaking Africa, a significant number given the few theatres.

It has been seen by several thousand people in Senegal and nearby countries, Diabang said.

At its first showings in Ivory Coast and Guinea in late August, "So Long a Letter" packed theatres with giddy crowds.

On social media, viewers dissected the movie down to where one might buy the characters' outfits.

And on a recent, sleepy Tuesday evening, several dozen spectators exited Pathe Dakar, a sizeable crowd for a movie out two months.

"It's the movie of the summer," said Adji Ndimo Ndiaye as she left.

People are talking about it "on social media, you log in, you see it, on posters, billboards, everywhere", the 29-year-old office manager said.

While most African movies debut at major festivals in Europe, Diabang's film first appeared at a New York festival and the FESPACO Pan-African festival in Burkina Faso.

Unable to find a distributer in France, she pivoted to a Senegalese company and a local debut.

Determined that her small-budget film which took 12 years to make would not come out on television, Diabang said she decided "to work on good communication with a very young distribution company".

"We said to ourselves: Let's try to make it work in Senegal," Diabang, who has produced and directed some 20 films, said.

Following its regional success, her new goal is to see it released in France and beyond.

- Multiple themes -

The appeal of "So Long a Letter", according to its fans, is the enduring nature of its central themes.

Polygamy, for example, is still pervasive in Senegal, where both the president and prime minister have two wives.

Then, "there's friendship, there's couples, there's how to build a strong nation, there's women's education, there's sisterhood, there's castes", Diabang said.

Theatregoer Nadia Nourdini, a 26-year-old from Cameroon, said that "the subject is polygamy, but for me, what stood out the most in the film was friendship".

For many, a devotion to the original book is also part of the appeal.

"I think they are transferring their love for the novel into the film," Diabang said.

"That's why I didn't abandon the film" despite the dozen years it took to make it, she added.

"I knew there was this emotion, people are attached to the book, are attached to multiple themes which are in the movie, which are important."

T.Ueda--JT