They were called the Senegalese Tirailleurs, but these soldiers who came to fight in Europe during the two world wars came from all over the French colonial empire in Africa. Between 1914 and 1918, there were around 200,000 skirmishers fighting under the French flag. 30,000 died, many returned injured or disabled. This story, we don’t know it, or very little: it is not really taught at school. And the cinema has also approached it very little.
That is to say if the film released this week, Wednesday in France and since yesterday in theaters in West Africa, especially in Dakar, that is to say therefore if this film is important, and well deserved a whole special program.
This film is therefore “Tirailleurs” with, at the top of the bill: Omar Sy. The international star interpreter Bakary Diallo embodies a Fulani breeder, who will enlist in the French army in 1914 to join his son (played by Alassane Diong), incorporated by force.
In the studio, Mathieu Vadepied presents his second feature film, on which he has been working for years. We were able to meet Omar Sy during his stay in Paris. And a long report by Juliette Dubois lets us hear the reactions of the Senegalese spectators who came to attend the preview in Dakar on December 20th.