Director: Manthia Diawara
Assistant Director:
Daman Diawara
Production: Jürgen Bock,
Lumiar Cité/Maumaus
Assistant Producer: Carlos Alberto Carrilho, Lumiar Cité/Maumaus
Camera: Oumar Ba, Daman Diawara, Mamadou Khouma Gueye Sound: Akim Ben Abass Sow, Berardo Theriaga
Editing: Mohamed Al Mubarak
Country: Portugal
Year: 2022
Runtime: 50’
HD Video, colour, sound
Language: English, French
Subtitles: English, French, Portuguese

With Aliou Diouf, Kamara Faye (aka Kamou), Hadje Dramé, Cheick Fadel, Moustapha Diawara, Fatou Diouf, Walymata Faye, Rokhaya Mbengue, Awa Ndoye, Kadame Ndoye, Maty Ngom, Arame Pouye.

Commissioned by Serpentine, London; MUBI, London; Polygreen Culture & Art Initiative, Athens, as part of Serpentine’s Back to Earth project. With additional support from Portuguese Ministry of Culture / Directorate-General for the Arts. and Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung, Dakar.

International premiere:
Institut français du Royaume-Uni, London, 21.07.2022

Manthia Diawara’s documentary unfolds as if it were a letter written to the viewer. In A Letter from Yene the filmmaker is not only the storyteller, but also the owner of one of the houses along the beach of Yene. Following encounters between fishermen, pebble collectors and himself, Diawara explores how their intersecting lives collectively and unknowingly contribute to the undermining of their shared environment.

Click [PLAY] to watch the trailer