The rainmaker and the filmmaker
Interview with director Rokhaya Marieme Balde
In her short film À la recherche d’Aline, Rokhaya Marieme Balde focuses on her great-aunt, Aline Sitoé Diatta, who was a heroine of the anti-colonial struggle in Senegal. In addition to her political commitment, Sitoé Diatta was also reputed to possess the gift of making rain fall. Balde’s film combines dreamlike reconstructions, a documentary investigation of the memories left behind by the resistance fighter and prophetess Sitoé Diatta in Casamance, and a look back at the making of the film. These different levels of narrative weave a complex portrait of a character between myth and historical reality. In this interview, Balde talks about the shoot and her career as a young filmmaker with a Bachelor’s degree in Cinema from the HEAD – Genève.