Camp De Thiaroye

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One of Sembène’s most celebrated and powerful films, Camp de Thiaroye is a historical and harrowing story honouring the very real fallen heroes of West Africa during World War II. West African troops fought the Nazis and were imprisoned in concentration camps, only to receive on their return to Senegal racist discrimination, unfair pay and for dozens, murder by the French authorities.

This film won the Grand Jury Prize in the 45th Venice International Film Festival, yet it was banned in France for a decade and censored in Senegal.

Last year the young president of Senegal, Mr. Bassirou Diomaye Diakhar Faye, achieved new recognition of this massacre, and a rare acknowledgment from France. Coincidently in time with a brand-new restoration by The Film Foundation’s World Cinema Project and Cineteca di Bologna at L’Immagine Ritrovata laboratory in association with the Tunisian Ministry of Cultural Affairs and the Senegalese Ministry of Culture and Historical Heritage.

We are thrilled to be able to present this seminal film, in partnership with University of Leeds Africa Week, on International Africa Day.