Three journeys. One horizon. A story of movement, imagination, and the will to move
An upcoming ethnographic documentary exploring the hopes, risks, and resilience of Senegalese youth navigating the dream of Europe. Currently in post-production — launching in 2026.
Unveiling paths and aspirations
Ousseynou
FISHERMAN
Ousseynou is a young fisherman from Dakar navigating the pressures of a livelihood made increasingly fragile by dwindling fish stocks. As he quietly prepares for a possible sea crossing to the Canary Islands, his wife Mbathio carries the weight of uncertainty—living with the silence that often surrounds such decisions.
Zakaria
STUDENT
Zakaria is a resourceful university student navigating the broken systems of higher education and visa bureaucracy, whose daily hustle and quietly defiant reflections reveal a search not for escape, but for dignity and recognition in a world of deferred futures.
Aliou
BASKETBALL PLAYER
Aliou is a semi-professional basketball player and Baye Fall devotee who blends faith, hustle, and activism—leading his team on and off the court as they fight for recognition, turning the film itself into a platform for collective resistance and reimagined futures.
Mbaye
BOAT BUILDER
Mbaye is a master boatbuilder in Soumbedioune whose patient craft anchors the film, as his hands and voice give shape to the pirogue—not just as a vessel, but as a symbol of generational knowledge, imagined journeys, and the fragile line between hope and loss.
About the Film
Barça ou Barzakh is an ethnographic documentary set in Dakar, Senegal, tracing the aspirations and dilemmas of young people caught between staying and seeking new horizons. Filmed through a collaborative lens, the story follows Ousseynou, a fisherman and father considering an irregular sea crossing; Zakaria, a student navigating the complexities of visa systems; and Aliou, a basketball captain striving for a professional future abroad. Their paths converge around the motif of pirogue-building — a powerful visual metaphor for labor, departure, and deferred dreams.
Rather than seeing movement as rupture, the film explores it as a creative and enduring practice of world-making. Currently in post-production, Barça ou Barzakh will premiere in 2026.
English 
French