documentary · documentary · manifesto
Safi Faye's portrait of her own ancestral Serer farming village interweaves oral history, ethnographic footage, and fictionalized historical scenes, and screened in Un Certain Regard at Cannes in 1979.
Fun fact: The village's name, Fadial, splits into fad, meaning arrive, and jal, meaning work, a wordplay the film's title makes literal.
Notes: Runtime 112 minutes. Corrected 2026-07-29: removed the claim that this was the first African feature selected for Cannes; it was selected for Un Certain Regard 1979, but African cinema (e.g. Soleil O, 1970) had already reached Cannes earlier.
Verification: verified · Sources:
[1] [2] [3]
Poster source: Wikipedia