EXCLUSIVE: After winning the Grand Prix in Cannes in 2019 with her feature film debut AtlanticistFrench-Senegalese filmmaker Mati Diop had a burning desire.
“My dream was to start a film school in Dakar,” she tells Deadline.
Diop made history at Cannes this year when she became the first black woman to enter the festival’s official competition. She reached a similar milestone in February when she became the first black filmmaker to win Berlin’s Golden Bear with her original documentary Dahomey.
Named after the ancient West African kingdom of Dahomey in the south of what is now the Republic of Benin, the documentary opens in November 2021 as 26 royal treasures from the former kingdom are about to leave Paris to return to their country of origin. Along with thousands of others, the artifacts were looted by French colonial troops in 1892.
Dahomey is Diop’s second feature film project and the first from Fanta Sy, the Dakar-based production house she quietly founded earlier this year with her creative partner Fabacary Assymby Coly, a Senegalese industry veteran. The company is the result of Diop’s initial film school ambitions.
Fabacary Assymby Coly and Mati Diop with their “Dahomey” producers Eve Robin and Judith Lou Lévy (Photo by Andreas Rentz/Getty Images).
“The idea is also to use my network to show the films we support at festivals and distribute them worldwide,” she says.
To date, very little information has been released about the company and its strategy. Below, Diop and Coly talk to us about why they decided to found Fanta Sy, what the company’s goals are, what projects they are pursuing and how they want to support a new generation of “daring” African stories.
DEADLINE: The name Fanta Sy. What does it mean and why did you choose it?
MATI DIOP: I chose the name the same way I usually choose the title of a film. A title should announce the color and evoke a story. Fanta Sy has many inspirations. Firstly, it is a reference to “Anna Sanders Films”, the first producers who trusted me and supported me when I made my first short film in Dakar (Atlanticist, 2009). Fanta Sy also comes from an African name that I particularly like: “Fanta”, made world famous by Alpha Blondy’s great 80s song “Fanta Diallo”. Fanta is also the first name of one of the characters in Atlantic. I suspect the last name “Sy” sounds familiar. It’s funny to think that it is also the name of one of the most popular French actors, despite being typically West African. Fanta Sy is also “fantasy”, which suggests a special sensitivity to the genre. Whether real or fictional, we want to support films that have a vision and a formal standard.
DEADLINE: Mati and Fabacary, how did you meet?
FABACARY ASSYBY COLY: I can not remember. Lol
DIOP: Me neither, which probably means we’ve been working together for a long time. Our first collaboration dates back to 2012, when Fabacary and I led the entire preparation of my film A thousand suns (A thousand suns) together. As a writer and director, I was significantly involved in the production. Fabacary held various positions: production manager and assistant director. Our collaboration worked well and ran smoothly.
DEADLINE: And how did you come up with the idea of starting a production company?
COLA: After Atlanticist Mati, who won the Cannes Prize in 2019, expressed a desire to share her experiences and support young Senegalese and, more broadly, African authors. I have already done this in Senegal, but in a very informal way. We started thinking about it and came up with the idea of starting a company to realize our ambitions.
DIOP: Originally my dream was to set up a film school in Dakar. This desire arose for the same reason as my intention to engage my cinema in this area, which I have been doing since 2008 and to which I have devoted all my time so far. Making films, starting a school and starting a business are not the same thing, but in my opinion it all comes from the same desire to spread the message. The idea is also to use my network to show the films we support at festivals and distribute them worldwide. After Atlantic, where Fabacary served as an artistic collaborator, I began to see him as a potential producer of my next films in Senegal. I also decided to become a co-producer of my films.
DEADLINE: Fabacary, people will know Mati better internationally thanks to her work. What is your background and how did you get here?
COLA: After completing an audiovisual training course in Dakar in 1998, I took part in several workshops in the areas of filming, directing and screenwriting. Over the last twenty years, in addition to directing my own films (3), I have also worked with several authors on their projects as a cinematographer, first assistant director, production manager and producer.
DIOP: I like the story that our different backgrounds tell. Fabacary is a major player in Senegalese cinema and embodies local know-how. I embody a different reality of Senegalese cinema, which has managed to establish itself on the world stage. This proves to young people that locally conceived and shot films exist in their own language and can be legitimate in this world.
DEADLINE: Is the company based in Dakar?
DIOP: Absolutely.
DEADLINE: What are the company’s goals? Which projects would you like to carry out?
COLA: The aim is to identify young authors through writing workshops and to support them in the creation of their films.
DEADLINE: Mati, in an Instagram post you said that the company aims to highlight “the emergence of new cinematic texts” on the African continent. What does that mean?
DIOP: This means thinking outside the box, reinventing yourself and having the courage to explore new horizons. The idea is, above all, to listen to the uniqueness of each person we work with and encourage them to develop their own vision.
DEADLINE: What type of partnerships do you want to develop as a company? Both on the continent and elsewhere.
COLA: The type of partnership we are looking for is primarily financial and technical support from the Senegalese authorities and organizations that support the film industry, so that we can best support the authors we develop.
DIOP: Of course we are also thinking about international co-productions, as we have already done Dahomey with France and Benin.
DEADLINE: What are you not interested in?
DIOP: I have no interest in producing a film in Senegal that tells our stories, but is made in French or English, without an African main cast. That’s my red line.
What trends are you currently observing on the continent?
COLA:: In Africa we are seeing more and more bold stories – political, social, fantastical – that are highly imaginative and often told in the first person in documentaries. We are seeing more and more authors documenting history and depicting reality with a sophisticated and confident aesthetic.