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10.06.2021 22:00 Eng. subtitles Open Air Kino HKW (Tickets)

In photos of Paris from the late 1960s, he can be seen in the crowd, not far from Daniel Cohn-Bendit. In Nanterre, he’s a philosophy student and activist. He would rather read Foucault than Mao’s Little Red Book, which doesn’t prevent Jean-Luc Godard from giving him the role of a Mao exegete in LA CHINOISE.

Just as Omar Blondin Diop’s brief life played out across several different levels, Vincent Meessen also layers the materials that make up JUSTE UN MOUVEMENT. Shot/reverse shot stitches together past and present; Paris, Dakar and Peking provide the geographical framework; Godard’s signature colours of red and blue, the re-enactment of scenes from La chinoise and Chinese “soft-power” endeavours in contemporary Senegal are all smoothly folded into the mix. The uppermost level of the film, though, is dialectic of the most sinister sort: Léopold Sédar Senghor, of all people, poet and president of the independent Senegal, proponent of Négritude, persecutes his political enemies. In 1973, Diop dies at an outrageously young age, in the Gorée prison off the coast of Senegal.

This moving film understands the stagnation that results when the promise of freedom tips over into repression. (Cristina Nord)

Vincent Meessen, born in 1971 in Baltimore, Maryland, USA. He studied journalism and cultural policy and works as a filmmaker, visual artist and author in Brussels. His artistic works are presented internationally at festivals and in exhibitions.

Production Geneviève De Bauw, Vincent Meessen. Production companies Thank You & Good Night productions (Brüssel, Belgium), Jubilee (Brüssel, Belgium). Written and directed by Vincent Meessen. Cinematography Vincent Pinckaers. Editing Simon Arazi. Sound design Laszlo Umbreit. Sound Laszlo Umbreit. Assistant director Mamadou Khouma Gueye. Co-producers Olivier Marboeuf, Javier Packer-Comyn, Samuel Feller. Co-production SPECTRE production, CBA, Magellan films. With Dialo Blondin Diop, Ousman Blondin Diop, Marie-Thérèse Diedhiou, Alioune Paloma Sall, Bouba Diallo, Cheikh Hamalah Blondin Diop, Felwine Sarr, Malal Almamy Tall, Fi Lu, Doudou Fall.

Films: 2005: N12°13.062'/WOO1°32.619'Extended (9 min.). 2006: De Vennoten / Les sociétaires (9 min.), The Invisible's Parliament (5 min.). 2007: Made in Belgium (3 min.). 2009: Dear Advisor (8 min.), Vita Nova (28 min.). 2015: One.Two.Three (35 min.). 2018: Ultramarine (42 min.). 2020: Quelle que soit la longueur de la nuit (78 min.).

Bonus material

Vincent Meessen, director of "Juste un movement"

© Wali Issa Lee

„The film is a reflection on the relationship we as artists and thinkers have with people in power”

Cristina Nord talks with filmmaker Vincent Meessen (English, 17:48 min)

Essays on the film "Juste un movement"

  • Still JUSTE UN MOUVEMENT (Just A Movement)

    Essay

    In „Kung Fu and Class Struggle” Bert Rebhandl describes how JUSTE UN MOUVEMENT examines the life of Senegalese activist Omar Blondin Diop via Godard's LA CHINOISE

  • Still JUSTE UN MOUVEMENT (Just A Movement)

    Essay

    In „Soft Imperialism” Jochen Becker shows how the complex montage of JUSTE UN MOUVMENT points to “Chinafrica”
Program Forum 2021

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