All Films

Tall as the Baobab Tree (Grand comme le baobab)

Contemporary World Cinema

Synopsis

The serene beauty of rural Senegal provides the backdrop for this lovely tale of one girl’s strength in the face of seemingly unsurmountable odds. Coumba is the first girl from her village to attend school in the nearby city. A good student, she passes her exams but, on the very same day, an accident occurs in her family – and the misfortune proves prohibitively expensive. To come up with the money to pay the hospital bill, Coumba’s father decides to sell off her 11-year-old sister Debo into marriage – ‘that’s the custom in our village,’ he says. Horrified, Coumba hatches a plan to rescue Debo from a future she wants no part in. In a culture where education for girls is seen as an enemy of families, and a daughter going against her father’s wishes is looked down upon, how can a young woman find the empowerment to support those who depend on her?

Official Film Website

About the Directors

Jeremy Teicher graduated from Dartmouth College, USA, in 2010 – the same year that his short film, ‘This Is Us: Video Stories from Senegalese Youth’, won an award from the Dicey Centre for International Understanding and received a Student Academy Award nomination. His second film, the narrative short ‘Foursquare Day’, screened at Comic-Con in 2011.

Credits

Director

Jeremy Teicher

Screenwriter

Jeremy Teicher, Alexi Pappas

Producer

Mala Bawer

Editor

Sofi Marshall

Composer

Jay Wadley

Music

Salieu Suso (Kora)

Cinematographer

Chris Collins

Other

Kora Music: Salieu Susso

Cast

Dior Kâ, Oumoul Kâ, Alpha Dia, Cheikh Dia, Mboural Dia, Mouhamed Diallo

Top of page