"It‘s difficult for African cinema to be itself"

His multidimensional works centering on the experience of the African diaspora established Alain Gomis as a leading voice of contemporary independent cinema. After winning the Berlinale Silver Bear for his sensitive drama Félicité, the French-Senegalese director has returned to the festival’s competition with his 2012 existentialist study Today, and his latest feature Dao. Moving between documentary and fiction, the experimental exploration of heritage, cultural identity, and belonging takes its group of French-Guinea-Bissauan protagonists on a transformative journey to the country of their ancestors and back to a French wedding. For the cinematic release of Dao, Alain Gomis spoke with Lidanoir about the personal origin of the film project, real emotions in fictional settings, the importance of representation, and why Europe’s cinematic image of African countries is stuck in the past.