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A Tooth for a Tooth film image; DJ working at an outdoor booth

Tooth for Tooth

Dent pour Dent

FOCUS

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Canadian Premiere

Idrissa lives in the suburbs of Dakar, Senegal. As a result of budgetary restrictions imposed by the IMF, then headed by Dominique Strauss-Kahn, he lost his job as a civil servant. Since then, Idrissa has been looking for work, without success. His pride as an African man is all the more affected by the fact that he is now entirely dependent on his wife, Viviane, who somehow manages to support the family through her medical practice. Aminata (Idrissa and Viviane’s daughter) and Moussa, two young students in love with each other, also see their lives disrupted by the economic situation imposed on the country. After yet another humiliation, Idrissa, who holds Strauss-Kahn responsible for his misfortune, decides to go and see a marabout to prepare his revenge…

Amidst the daily movements of life in the city, we are drawn into a changing political landscape that comically unravels one man’s life. Through his downfall, we see the effects of government cuts and sanctions on the lives of everyday people, as well as the state of university education in Dakar. The futures of both the young and older generations become entwined in resistance to the foreign pressures dictating Senegal’s future.

Kika Memeh & Ogheneofegor Obuwoma, FOCUS Curators

 

Presented by

Director
Cast

Charles Auguste Kottou, Charles Auguste Kottou, Aida Ndeye Aidar, Oumou Ndeye Kaltoum Ndiaye, Jean-Pierre Correa

Credits
Country of Origin

Senegal/Belgium/France/
Rwanda

Year

2023

Language

In Wolof and French with English subtitles

Film Contact
18+
84 min
Black Cinema Comedy Drama
Moabi Films, Néon Rouge, Tact Production, Karekezi Films

Book Tickets

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Credits & Director

Producer

Oualid Baha, Aurélien Bodinaux, Souleymane Kébé, Ottis Ba

Screenwriter

Ottis Ba, Katell Guillou

Cinematography

Myriam Amouri, Joséphine Ndour

Editor

Yannick Leroy

Ottis Ba headshot; A Tooth for a Tooth director

Ottis Ba

Ottis Ba was born in Dakar. At the age of fifteen, he moved to Paris where he became passionate about theatre. He has acted in Othello and A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Théâtre national de Nice. Ottis began to venture into cinema, first as an actor, then as a self-taught director. He directed a few short films including one with French actress Aïssa Maïga. Tooth For Tooth is his first feature.

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