FIRE NEXT TIME tells the story of Adel, a young 16-year old woman from Dakar, whose fast-paced existence - a job as a beautician, going out with friends, drinking, drugs and consuming whatever's going on the free market - is totally upset by the sudden disappearance of her lover, Souleimane.
Soon her boyfriend is counted as missing, believed dead, especially when the bodies of some of his friends are washed up on a Dakar beach. The youngsters must have gone to sea in one of the many boats that leave the Senegal shores in search of a better life elsewhere.
Souleimane's body, however, is not found.
Wildly hoping, Adel is getting out of control.
Her family, part of Dakar's devout Muslim middle class, secretly intends to marry the young woman to an old man of some standing, so as to limit the damage from Adel's out-of-line behavior in town.
Her father decides to send her to stay with her sister in their village - on the coast, south of Dakar - to let things quiet down while the marriage preparations begin.
For the villagers, who enjoy the bounty of aid sent home by the city-dwellers of their clan, this is an unexpected opportunity to benefit unlooked for opportunity to benefit from the generosity that surrounds a wedding.
For Adel, it might as well be the end of the world. Not knowing her family's plans, she is aware only of punishment, memories and the possible specter of the man she loved.
A chance encounter with a strange old woman who lives on the margins of the tiny community brings Adel face-to-face with new possibilities. The elder woman readies the younger to confront her life and sublimate her solitude.
A series of odd and fantastical events waken Adel to a new dimension of herself. The In parallel, relationship between the two women is not viewed favorably by the village, however, and the atmosphere in the village grows tense. Adel feels there is a conspiracy against her. And against the old woman, too, whose liberating words are disapproved of.
On the day set for the wedding, a convoy of cars arrives from Dakar. Adel runs away, heading for the ocean as fast as her legs will carry her.
We finally find her stretched out on the shore of Dakar. She is alone. A new day dawns above the ocean horizon and the vast city.
Perhaps Adel is at last free to invent a new existence for herself.

A film by Mati DIOP

Senegal / France / Belgium, 2019, Fiction, 1h44' · Color / drama /

starring Mame Bineta Sané, Amadou Mbow, Ibrahima Traoré

First Feature

Director''s note
This is the legend of the bird that rises from the ashes. Here, the phoenix is a young woman. After devoting a short film to the men who leave by sea, my current interest is in the women who stay behind, the ones who wait for a brother, a lover, a son to come back.
Fire Next Time is a gothic tale of contemporary Africa, telling the story of a latter day Penelope in Dakar. This one She cannot while away her time in luxuriant bowers, however, as she awaits his return. She has to escape from a grim destiny and save her life.She has to save her skin, escape from a dark destiny not chosen of her own free will. At the end of this journey of initiation, the adolescent woman finds her lost treasure. Freedom.

Directing
Mati Diop

Based on
original screenplay

Casting
Ada : Mame Bineta "Mama" SANÉ
Issa : Amadou MBOW
Souleiman : Ibrahima TRAORÉ
Dior : Nicole SOUGOU
Fanta : Aminata KANE
Mariama : Mariama GASSAMA
Thérèse : Coumba DIENG
Moustapha : Ibrahima MBAYE
Mr Ndiaye : Diankou SEMBÉNE
Omar : Babacar SYLLA
Cheikh : Abdou BALDÉ

Shooting location: Senegal

Budget
1'350'000 Euro

Executive Production: LES FILMS DU BAL
Senegalese Co-production: CINEKAP
Belgian Co-production: FRAKAS PRODUCTIONS

with the support of FOPICA (Sénégal, 50 millions FCFA / 76 224 EUR), and La Francophonie (OIF, Paris, sept 2017: 40 000 €)

World Sales: MK2 FILMS, Paris
French Distributor: AD VITAM, Paris

Production Company''s Profile
Judith Lou Lévy set up Les Films du Bal in Paris in January 2011. The company produces and co-produces short and full-length films. Its ambition is to work with filmmaking talent and creativity for French, but also European and international audiences. Fire Next Time is the first full-length feature from Les Films du Bal.

Filmography (Les Films du Bal)
Fire Next Time, Mati Diop (full-length feature)
Fort Buchanan, Benjamin Crotty (short feature, 2012)

2019 | Cannes Film Festival 2019, France
* Official Competition


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IT

Regia: Mati Diop

Senegal / Francia / Belgio, 2019, Finzione, 1h44' · Colore / drama /


Produzione
LES FILMS DU BAL (Francia)
CINEKAP (Senegal)
FRAKAS PRODUCTIONS (Belgio)

Aiuto alla produzione
FOPICA (Senegal, 2016: 50 millions FCFA / 76 224 EUR)
OIF ((Francia, sept 2017: 40 000 €)

VENDITE INTERNAZIONALI: MK2 FILMS, Paris
Distribuzione (Francia): AD VITAM, Paris