The Attachment

Liti Liti

Mamadou Khouma Gueye
Senegal, Belgium, France | 2025 | 76 min
World premiere
Languages : French, Wolof
Subtitles : English, French

Guinaw Rail, a forgotten neighbourhood on the outskirts of Dakar, is emptying out. Bulldozers are demolishing houses along the route of the ‘Train Express Regional’, the symbol of President Macky Sall's “Emerging Senegal”. Before it disappears and is transformed entirely, the filmmaker captures his childhood kingdom and his mother, as she recalls a life lived behind the Rails.

At Dakar train station, a sound and light show is presenting the new TER (Train Express Régional) regional express train. The announcement promises mobility and economic opportunities. The crowd eats it up. A few miles away, however, Guinaw Rail is plunged into darkness. In this usually bustling suburban district, the mood is not festive. For the TER to run, Guinaw Rail must “skedaddle”. The bulldozers are already hard at work, while the promised compensation payments are slow to show up. With the TER, Guinaw Rail will once again be watching the train of economic and social change pass by, with no hope of getting on board.
In order to ward off disintegration and cement a memory of the place, Mamadou Khouma Gueye filmed his mother, retracing her history: her arrival in the neighbourhood, the links she forged with the community in the midst of the vicissitudes of daily life. Her political commitments, her hopes and disappointments. Through the story of the launch of Africa’s first TER, the film chronicles the relegation of an entire population, and its weary disillusionment with its ruling class.
Katy Léna Ndiaye

The Attachment, 2025
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