Power dynamics wrapped in religious intolerance drives a wedge between two brothers in Mamadou Dia’s engrossing feature debut, “Nafi’s Father.” While presenting two competing visions of Islam, the …
Power dynamics wrapped in religious intolerance drives a wedge between two brothers in’s engrossing feature debut, “Nafi’s Father.
In a small town in the northeast of Senegal, the local Tierno , a religious leader qualified to be an Imam, practices a centuries-old homegrown version of Islam that adheres to Koranic scripture but also incorporates certain traditional animist practices. His older brother, Ousmane , on the other hand, has fallen in with a fundamentalist sheikh from outside the region and is throwing money around to draw more people into his circle.
There’s an unexpected strain of melancholy that suffuses “Nafi’s Father,” notwithstanding frequent grace notes of humor. The Tierno is conceived as a figure of Shakespearean proportions, wielding authority with a gentle hand yet caught in a rigidity that makes him blind to what’s happening in his own home.
The script could use some tightening, and even more noticeable is the need for greater flow in line delivery, which tends to allow for too much empty space between conversational dialogue. Dia and producer Maba Ba met while attending NYU’s Tisch School, and they’ve put together a crew consisting of fellow alumni Sheldon Chau as DP and Alan Wu as editor.
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