Director in Focus: Safi Faye

Discover the rarely screened but ground- breaking works of the late Safi Faye and her keen ethnographic lens, on her journey from actress, to first Sub-Saharan African woman to direct a commercially distributed film, to being lauded at Cannes.

Come and Work

Director Safi Faye

The first ever African film to screen at Cannes, this detailed investigation of village life is a profound meditation on time, memory and community.

I, Your Mother

Director Safi Faye

“When will you return?” This haunting question – familiar to many an expat – is asked of a Senegalese student in West Berlin.

Letter From My Village

Director Safi Faye

This trailblazing work – the first feature made by a woman from Sub-Saharan Africa – sets a story of love and land against a postcolonial backdrop.

Little by Little

Director Jean Rouch

In her first foray into cinema, Safi Faye acts in Jean Rouch’s comedy about two Nigeriens whose Paris trip becomes a lesson in ‘reverse ethnography’.

Mossane

Director Safi Faye

In a rare work of pure fiction for Safi Faye, drawing from a Wolof legend, a teen brings disaster to her village after defying an arranged marriage.

Short

Selbé: One Among Many

Director Safi Faye

Safi Faye’s groundbreaking 1983 ethnographic documentary uses one Senegalese woman’s experience to comment widely on gender and society.