24th Annual Cascade Festival of African Films
Directed by Moussa Touré
France, Germany, Senegal, 2012 , 87 min.
Focus on the African Immigrant Experience
La Pirogue tells the story of Baye Laye, a retired boat captain who reluctantly agrees to take 29 men (and one stowaway woman) on a perilous journey across the Atlantic Ocean to Spain in a pirogue, a wooden fishing boat. While united in their desperation to seek a better life for themselves and their families in Europe, the passengers hail from different ethnic and religious backgrounds and, in a few cases, different countries. Their journey is far from smooth. Dedicated to the thousands of Africans who have lost their lives trying to cross to Europe in the last decade, La Pirogue tackles the issue of illegal immigration in a clear-eyed and compassionate manner. At the same time, director Moussa Touré has created a timeless, mythically haunting odyssey. Winner of the Golden Tanit at the 2012 Carthage Film Festival and the Bronze Stallion at FESPACO 2013. Moussa Touré’s delightful road-trip film TGV opened the 12th CFAF in 2002.
In Wolof and French with English subtitles.
Sponsored by Willamette University
Friday, February 21st 2014, 7:00pm at the Moriarty Arts and Humanities Building, Room 104
Note: Focus on the African Immigrant Experience
All films are free and open to the public on a first-come, first-served basis.
