Djao - After The Road

Taking the viewer into the life of Mamadou K, the documentary maps his experiences and daily lived reality as an illegal immigrant in France. Having escaped a fate of violence following the murder of his father and brother, he seeks refuge and safety in the European country. The film is an insightful engagement with what it truly means to flee your homeland after finding yourself in mortal peril, and try to carve yourself a reality in a new, potentially unwelcoming land, where your mere existence is outside the ambit of legality.

The subject in itself is a complex one, requiring an intelligent handling of its several nuances, to allow the narrative to be a well-balanced product. The film is a sincere, dedicated attempt to achieve the same, and succeeds in presenting to the viewer the story of Mamadou which is plagued by the memory of a family left behind, a sense of longing and separation, and a suggestion of the cost he may have had truly had to pay to save his life.

In an exile where streets are lined with fake souvenirs of capitalism, where it takes the loss of friends and loved ones, along with an absolutely uncertain fate, to carry on living an unperturbed existence, even if fleetingly, the documentary conjures the fragility of an experience that is marked by an elemental disconcertment and the futility of human effort.