Tall as the Baobab Tree (Grand comme le baobab)
Contemporary World Cinema
Jeremy Teicher / Feature Narrative / Senegal, United States of America / 2012 / 82 min / Colour / HDCAM
In Pulaar / Arabic, English subtitles
Interests: Coming of Age, Drama, Social Issues, Youth, Family, Based on a True Story, Women Interest
MENA Premiere
Synopsis
The serene beauty of rural Senegal provides the backdrop for this lovely tale of one girl’s strength in the face of seemingly unsurmountable odds. Coumba is the first girl from her village to attend school in the nearby city. A good student, she passes her exams but, on the very same day, an accident occurs in her family – and the misfortune proves prohibitively expensive. To come up with the money to pay the hospital bill, Coumba’s father decides to sell off her 11-year-old sister Debo into marriage – ‘that’s the custom in our village,’ he says. Horrified, Coumba hatches a plan to rescue Debo from a future she wants no part in. In a culture where education for girls is seen as an enemy of families, and a daughter going against her father’s wishes is looked down upon, how can a young woman find the empowerment to support those who depend on her?
About the Directors
Jeremy Teicher graduated from Dartmouth College, USA, in 2010 – the same year that his short film, ‘This Is Us: Video Stories from Senegalese Youth’, won an award from the Dicey Centre for International Understanding and received a Student Academy Award nomination. His second film, the narrative short ‘Foursquare Day’, screened at Comic-Con in 2011.
Credits
- Director
- Jeremy Teicher
- Screenwriter
- Jeremy Teicher, Alexi Pappas
- Producer
- Mala Bawer
- Editor
- Sofi Marshall
- Composer
- Jay Wadley
- Music
- Salieu Suso (Kora)
- Cinematographer
- Chris Collins
- Other
- Kora Music: Salieu Susso
- Cast
- Dior Kâ, Oumoul Kâ, Alpha Dia, Cheikh Dia, Mboural Dia, Mouhamed Diallo