Barça ou Barzakh

Cosmin Popan

Cosmin Popan is a migrant, a journalist turned social scientist, and someone who has long been fascinated by movement—of people, ideas, and bicycles. Having lived in the UK and France and now contemplating another move, he brings a deeply personal lens to questions of migration and mobility. His academic journey began with a PhD on urban cycling and everyday mobilities, and has since evolved toward studying how migration imaginaries circulate—particularly among West African youth navigating uncertain futures and bureaucratic barriers.

Cosmin is interested not just in how stories are told, but how they travel. He works at the intersection of public scholarship and collaborative ethnography, always seeking ways to make academic insights speak to broader audiences. He is the lead investigator of Doing Gig Work, a multimodal research project documenting the lives of food couriers through participatory methods. The project includes an interactive website that collects courier stories [www.gigwork.city] and a role-playing game, Games Against Gamification, co-designed with digital workers to subvert algorithmic control. His work blends research and storytelling, theory and method, visibility and care. More writing at: medium.com/@cosminpopan

Aliou Diatta

Aliou Diatta is the captain of the Port Autonome de Dakar basketball team and the narrator of the film. But his role extends far beyond voiceover. Aliou opened Dakar to Cosmin—unlocking its rhythms, introducing his teammates, and contributing directly to the scripting and shooting of key scenes. He has helped shape the film’s narrative arcs, grounding them in lived experience and local knowledge.

His own migration story—two years playing semi-professionally in Algeria—offers first-hand insight into the realities of mobility, aspiration, and return. But more than a subject, Aliou has been a co-creator: he organized reflexive workshops with fellow players and facilitated pivotal encounters with different publics, from a packed Mbalax concert in Grand Dakar to Ndogu and Korité celebrations during Ramadan.

Aliou’s collaboration on the film is also deeply personal. It took root in long conversations shared with Cosmin—over late-night lemon coffees at Elias or on motorbike rides from the city center to Grand Yoff. These weren’t just logistical pauses—they became spaces of political reflection, friendship, and critique, where everyday struggles and trenchant reflections on Macky Sall’s presidency came to the fore.

Both “boss” and “très cher frère,” Aliou will remain actively involved in the film’s post-production. He will help shape the edit, organize community screenings, and translate the film into Wolof—ensuring it speaks directly to the people it was made with.

Aliou’s presence gives Barça ou Barzakh its most genuinely collaborative dimension. His leadership, generosity, and unwavering commitment to collective storytelling have transformed it from a film about mobility into one made through shared movement, trust, and community.

⁠Mouhamad Sall

Mouhamad Sall is a filmmaker and director of photography whose work blends narrative depth with visual precision. Based in Dakar, he is the founder of S ART Studio, an audiovisual production company committed to locally rooted, technically refined storytelling.

For Barça ou Barzakh, Mouhamad leads the post-production process—editing, color grading, and sound design—shaping the film’s sensory and emotional register. His involvement began by chance: a casual discovery that he and Cosmin were neighbors in Grand Yoff. Their collaboration was sealed by a small but telling gesture: when Cosmin needed a hex key to adjust his tripod, Mouhamad happened to have one in his pocket. From that moment, a dynamic creative partnership was born.

Mouhamad joined the filming on the ground, assisting with fieldwork and co-developing the film’s visual identity. He also edited the official trailer, carefully balancing poetic imagery and narrative momentum to reflect the project’s emotional and political tone.

He brings to the project significant experience in telling migration stories from within. Mouhamad co-directed and shot Mirage, a short film following two brothers, Moussa and Sidy, as they attempt to leave Senegal in search of a better life in Europe. Through deserts, seas, and uncertainty, Mirage traces the emotional toll of migration and the enduring power of brotherhood in the face of illusion and risk.

Whether working through scripted fiction or collaborative documentary, Mouhamad’s practice is marked by craft, community, and critique. His contribution to Barça ou Barzakh is not only technical but profoundly political: a commitment to telling stories with those whose lives are so often told by others.

Letizia Bonanno

Letizia Bonanno is a social anthropologist and ethnographer whose work engages multimodal and graphic methods to explore lives, movements, and imaginaries that exceed the limits of language. She joined the Barça ou Barzakh team on the ground in Dakar, working closely with participants and the film crew to deepen the project’s visual and narrative textures—and even celebrated her birthday on the staircase of the building where she lived, a brief pause in the midst of intense fieldwork.

Letizia’s contribution focuses on integrating graphic elements and drawn stories that trace what often escapes the camera: the unsaid, the hesitant, the speculative. Her illustrations evoke fleeting gestures, aspirations, and the affective weight of uncertainty—bringing into view the dilemmas and desires that shape mobility.

Through her work, Barça ou Barzakh expands beyond the documentary form to become a multimodal collaboration—where ethnography, art, and political imagination meet.

Boubacar Kane

Boubacar Kane is a basketball player and a skilled, self-taught video editor, continuing a legacy of visual storytelling inherited from his father. His contribution to Barça ou Barzakh builds on a unique blend of athletic experience, media craft, and political awareness.

For the film, Boubacar co-edits key basketball scenes, assists with subtitling, and produces short-form content for online platforms and festival screenings. But his involvement began long before post-production: during the Port Autonome de Dakar basketball team’s strike, Boubacar filmed and edited a powerful video denouncing the suspension of salaries—a bold act of worker protest. The video, widely shared and available on YouTube, captured the energy, frustration, and urgency of that moment, asserting the players not just as athletes but as workers demanding recognition and rights.

Outside the film, Boubacar runs SETSIMA1 TV, a fast-growing YouTube channel rooted in community journalism and local debate. Branded “in honor, in service of the people,” the channel reflects his commitment to accessible, people-centered media—delivering news, interviews, and commentary directly to a growing public.

Whether behind the camera or at the editing desk, Boubacar brings a sharp eye, a sense of rhythm shaped by sport, and a deep belief in public storytelling. His presence strengthens the collaborative core of Barça ou Barzakh, where each team member contributes distinct knowledge—cinematic, ethnographic, graphic, musical—to build a collective narrative from below.

⁠Alhouseny Yattabarry

Alhouseny Yattabarry is a field assistant, interpreter, and master’s student in Migration internationale et relations interculturelles at the Institut de Formation en Population, Développement et Santé de la Reproduction (IFPDSR) at UCAD (Université Cheikh Anta Diop) in Dakar. He also holds a Master 2 in international public law. His contributions to Barça ou Barzakh have been essential — from recruiting participants in fishing communities and urban neighborhoods, to coordinating field logistics and facilitating nuanced translations between Wolof and French.

Rooted in both academic and community contexts, Alhouseny has also played a vital role in connecting the project to other UCAD students, grounding the work within Dakar’s intellectual and youth networks. His research focuses on the intersection of climate change and migration — a topic that resonates deeply with the film’s core themes.

Fluent in the languages and everyday realities that shape the documentary, Alhouseny ensures that collaboration is not only functional, but intellectually and culturally grounded. He brings not just translation, but connection — across disciplines, communities, and lived experience. Thanks to Alhouseny, the lead researcher learned not only his first words in Wolof, but also came to appreciate the depth and importance of the many nuanced greeting formulations that structure daily interaction in Senegal — moments of exchange that carry far more than politeness, reflecting respect, social rhythm, and belonging.

Ibrahima Seck

Ibrahima Seck isn’t the official team manager, but he’s something just as essential — the heart and hustle behind the Port Autonome de Dakar basketball team. A true jack of all trades, Ibrahima is always there: arranging rides, cheering on the players, and showing up even when no one asks him to. He follows the team everywhere — even in his dreams. With his ever-present chicha and a greeting for every passerby, he’s a real postmodern griot — a living archive of stories, hopes, and street-level wisdom.

In his neighborhood of Dieuppeul-Derklé, everyone knows him — and he knows everyone. Whether boys or girls, rising talents or seasoned players, Ibrahima carries the dream of securing a contract in Europe for each and every one of them. His belief in their potential is unwavering, and his courtside presence is tireless.

In December 2023, during Cosmin Popan’s first scouting visit to Dakar, Ibrahima opened the door to the world of Senegalese basketball. Without him, Barça ou Barzakh might never have had its starting point. As a guide, confidant, and connector, Ibou — as his friends call him — embodies the collective spirit and shared hope that run through the project.

The research project behind this film is funded by the French National Research Agency (ANR) as part of the France 2030 initiative, with support from Grenoble Alpes University and the Maison de la Création et de l’Innovation.