‘Dao’ Berlinale Review: Mapping Identity Through Two Ceremonies
A mother and daughter reconnect with their shared roots across a funeral in Guinea-Bissau and a wedding in France, in a hybrid film that blurs the boundaries between ritual, performance, and lived experience.
In what may be this year’s festival trend—or simply a coincidence—Dao is the second film in a row I’ve seen that opens with a casting session. Much like A Child of My Own by Chilean filmmaker Maite Alberdi, the film uses that device to repeatedly call into question its own status and the porous boundary between fiction, reality, and the hybrid terrain in between. Alain Gomis begins Dao by interviewing numerous women for different roles in his film, but seems to focus primarily on Katy Correa, who will play Gloria. It’s never stated outright, but we assume that the story that follows will belong not to Katy herself but to the character she embodies—even as the film constantly blurs the lines between documentary and fiction.
Beyond that initial anchor, what the director of Rewind & Play presents are two events experienced by Gloria and her daughter Nour (D’Johé Kouadio), unfolding in parallel even though they clearly take place at different points in time. One is a funeral in a village in Guinea-Bissau, where Gloria was born; the other is Nour’s wedding in the French countryside. In both cases they are surrounded by hundreds of relatives and friends, drawn from very different corners of their shared world. In Africa, Gloria introduces her twenty-something daughter—who has never visited before—to her ancestors, extended family, and acquaintances, most of whom have never met her except for those who traveled to Europe. In France, meanwhile, mother and daughter celebrate alongside a largely African immigrant community, joined here and there by guests of other racial or national backgrounds.
It’s difficult to summarize exactly what “happens” at either event. Edited in parallel, moving back and forth between the two, what Gomis offers is less a plot than a kind of cultural immersion filtered through the perspectives of two women with very different relationships to these worlds, conveyed through events that share numerous similarities alongside key differences. The African funeral—lasting several days—is steeped in specific rituals, spiritual ceremonies, dances, and ancestral traditions. The French wedding, somewhat more “Westernized” in tone, is nevertheless its own compendium of rites and customs. Amid it all, Gloria reconnects with relatives, former partners, loved ones, and old friends, engaging in a series of brief—and sometimes not so brief—conversations.
At intervals, Gomis returns to those casting sessions, introducing additional members of his ensemble and allowing the performers to speak about themselves, the roles they hope to play, and what those roles might mean in their lives. In a sense, Dao becomes a staging of those desires, conflicts, and lived experiences, collectively shaped by director and cast. Each argument, situation, ritual, or celebration within the two central events becomes part of a broader cultural journey through the life of an African community, both in its place of origin and in its adopted home.
The emotional textures of these encounters—festive, dramatic, or quietly moving—emerge through the experiences of mother and daughter as they reconnect with family and friends. Endless hugs, dancing, alcohol-fueled celebrations, raised voices, and the vibrant colors of traditional clothing—especially in the African sequences, since the French dress code leans more toward understated cool—combine to create a film that feels less like a conventional narrative than a lived experience, with Gomis effectively guiding viewers into a deep cultural immersion within this divided community. True, neither of these are everyday events but rather highly significant, even exceptional occasions; still, they convey a palpable sense of immediacy and authenticity, unfolding before our eyes even as one suspects that a good deal of fiction lies beneath the surface. Or the other way around…
With an afro-jazz score that shifts from subtle and melancholic to openly celebratory—blending seamlessly with live music performances, particularly during the funeral—Dao gradually introduces a series of personal tensions. These include Gloria’s relationship with Slimane (Samir Guesmi), Nour’s Moroccan-born father, as well as with her new (white) partner, suggesting that beneath the festive atmosphere lie unresolved conflicts. In Guinea-Bissau, disputes revolve around money and family grievances aired in public. In France, conflicts are more often tied to private secrets and unspoken truths. If there is an essential difference between the two sides of this community, it resides there: between the public and the private, the intimate and the social. Taken together—with all their tensions and contradictions—these elements map the breadth of that community’s experience.
