Dao

French-Senegalese director Alain Gomis has made one of the best films of the year in this swirling, cross-continental epic.

‘Dao’ is defined as ‘perpetual circular movement framing reality’. This informs a restless camera that sweeps through crowds of bodies, switching between two celebrations. Gloria returns to her late father’s home village and introduces her daughter Nour to her ancestral motherland, and African and European guests flock to Nour’s upmarket wedding on a French country estate.

“Alain Gomis’ Dao feels less like a film you watch than a space you enter — one where time doesn’t move forward in a straight line, but loops, overlaps, and quietly returns.” — Shahran Morshed, International Cinephile Society

Content Guidance: Contains scenes of animal slaughter