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CULTURE

French star Omar Sy returns to Senegalese roots for WWI movie

One of France's best-loved stars, Omar Sy, has returned to his Senegalese roots for a movie about colonial troops who fought for France in the World War I trenches.

French star Omar Sy returns to Senegalese roots for WWI movie
Omar Sy, producer and actor of the film Tirailleurs, speaks during a press conference in Dakar. Photo by SEYLLOU / AFP

Sy – best-known to an international audience for the Netflix thriller series “Lupin” – was in Dakar on Tuesday for the glitzy premiere of the much-awaited “Tirailleurs.”

The story is about a young man in Senegal named Thierno who is press-ganged into the French army, prompting his father to enlist voluntarily to keep an eye on him. Both are sent to the butchery of the Western Front.

More than 200,000 Africans served in the French armed forces during the first world war.

Many fought as “tirailleurs,” or front-line infantry, where losses were often devastating yet remain overlooked in history books and official records.

READ ALSO 5 of Omar Sy’s best French-language films and TV series

French-born Sy, who in the film speaks in his mother tongue of Fula, said he was swept away by the movie’s French-Senegalese currents.

“This is totally my story. It’s totally my identity,” he told AFP.

Sy said he had “many emotions” about the film, to which he had invited friends, relatives and Senegalese members of the crew for the premiere.

“It’s about being able to acknowledge and remind ourselves of what these men have contributed,” Sy told AFP. “It’s something that our generation needs.

Senegalese music stars Youssou N’Dour and Ismael Lo were among local celebrities who attended.

“Tirailleurs”‘ director is Mathieu Vadepied, who teamed up with Sy in 2011 to make “The Intouchables,” an acclaimed comedy drama about a wealthy but haughty quadriplegic and his ebullient black helper from the gritty Paris suburbs.

Vadepied said the film and choice of Dakar for the launch were a tribute to “all these soldiers who took part in these wars.”

“The history between France and Senegal and the other countries in Africa is now a distant but shared history. We are intertwined.”

“Tirailleurs,” which had its festival premiere in May in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard section, goes on commercial release in France and Senegal in early January. The English version is entitled “Father & Soldier.”

Among the public who watched the premiere, many said the film turned a vital spotlight on a painful and often forgotten colonial episode.

“We need (a film like this) to open minds and to serve the duty of remembrance. Not all of us are going to read a 500-page book,” said Salome Bar, a 21-year-old French-Senegalese student.

“There is still a taboo,” she said. “You can’t be healed of that wound so easily.”

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CRIME

French cinema boss on trial for sexual assault

The head of France's top cinema institution Dominique Boutonnat denied sexually assaulting his godson as he went on trial Friday in a case that has led to calls for him to step down.

French cinema boss on trial for sexual assault

The trial comes as French cinema reels from a renewed #MeToo reckoning that has seen several big names, including acting legend Gerard Depardieu, accused of sexual abuse.

READ ALSO: French actor Gérard Depardieu to be tried for sexual assault in October

Activists have denounced Boutonnat’s continued leadership of the National Centre of Cinema (CNC), whose role includes overseeing measures to curb sexual violence in the industry.

His godson accuses him of trying to masturbate him during a holiday in Greece in 2020 when he was 19.

“I looked at him to find my godfather and that’s when I saw someone completely different… It was someone using me to masturbate,” the godson, who cannot be named for legal reasons, told the court.

Boutonnat responded in court that it was his godson who had initiated the situation and kissed him.

“I feel bad about leaving an ambiguous situation, but to say there was a sexual assault is false,” he told the court.

He was placed under investigation in February 2021 but still reappointed by the government as head of the CNC in July 2022.

Training to prevent abuse has in recent months become obligatory for films seeking public funding via the CNC.

The CNC told AFP that the case against Boutonnat came from “the private sphere” and had no relation to its activities.

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