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  5. YA FRANÇA, YA FRANÇA
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  7. Safrana ou le droit à la parole

Safrana ou le droit à la parole

Safrana or The Right to Speak
Sidney Sokhona, France 1976, 98 Min., OV with English subs
Followed by a talk with Raphaël Grisey

Four Black African immigrant workers decide to leave Paris to follow agricultural courses in the French countryside and then attempt to reintegrate into their country of origin by founding an agricultural cooperative. In the bus that takes them to French peasants, they evoke their Parisian memories: the misery and derision of the condition of immigrant. Alternating between observational comedy and instructional political tract, Safrana starts with a quote by Mao about intuitive approaches to figuring out what's useful for one's own country in the operations of another, and ends with a documentary on farming techniques for agrarian socialism. 

Raphaël Grisey lives and works in Berlin. He uses video, editorial and photographic works to assemble narratives about politics of memory, migration and architecture. Grisey and Touré’s long-term collaborative project on the Somankidi Coura cooperative was presented in various international contexts, including several manifestations in Berlin, at Savvy Contemporary, Silent Green, and HKW.