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Camp de Thiaroye

(Ousmane Sembène, 1988)

New Restoration

The profile of a Black man wearing a military helmet.

Banned in France for more than a decade after its debut, Camp de Thiaroye is a historical corrective by the great Senegalese director Ousmane Sembène.

Camp de Thiaroye tells the largely untold history of the Thiaroye Massacre. In 1944 the French army murdered of hundreds of Senegalese soldiers who were protesting their pay after they were drafted by France to fight the Nazis. Instead of being met with gratitude following their sacrifices during the war, the soldiers instead endured harassment, poor rations, and saw only a portion of the pay they were promised leading to an explosive act of resistance that ended in tragedy. Winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the 1988 Venice Film Festival. (154 mins., 4K DCP)

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IMAGE CAPTION
Camp de Thiaroye, courtesy of Cineteca di Bologna.

Restored 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. Special thanks to Mohamed Challouf. Restoration funded by the Hobson/Lucas Family Foundation. This restoration is part of the African Film Heritage Project, an initiative created by The Film Foundation’s World Cinema Project, the Pan African Federation of Filmmakers and UNESCO—in collaboration with Cineteca di Bologna—to help locate, restore, and disseminate African cinema.

FILM/VIDEO PROGRAMS MADE POSSIBLE BY
Ohio Humanities

ADDITIONAL SUPPORT PROVIDED BY
Rohauer Collection Foundation

WEXNER CENTER PROGRAMS MADE POSSIBLE BY
Greater Columbus Arts Council
The Wexner Family
Institute of Museum and Library Services
Mellon Foundation
Every Page Foundation
Ohio Arts Council, with support from the National Endowment for the Arts
CampusParc
Nationwide Foundation
Lois S. and H. Roy Chope Fund of The Columbus Foundation
The Columbus Foundation
Axium Packaging

ADDITIONAL SUPPORT PROVIDED BY
Ohio History Fund/Ohio History Connection
David Crane and Elizabeth Dang

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Camp de Thiaroye