Re:Vision: Dakan

Dakan follows two young men, Manga and Sory, as they navigate young love of a kind their families cannot abide. Seen by Manga’s mother as a mental illness, and Sory’s father as a weakness to overcome, both men struggle to live the “right way”. Self-denial, tradition and superstition merge in attempts to rid the young lovers of their passions. This careful exploration of the realities of gay love in 1997’s Guinea depicts a milieu in which Manga and Sory’s contemporaries seem to understand and accept their gayness, while the older generation cannot, will not explore the possibility that their offspring might live lives outside of the ones set forth for them by their parents. Manga and Sory’s longing for each other, and pain at their separation, is depicted physically, making manifest the deep ache of young lovers wrested apart. Dakan is considered the first West Africa film to tackle the topic of homosexuality. It screened at Frameline in 1998, and won the Grand Jury Award for Outstanding Foreign Narrative Feature at L.A. Outfest the same year.

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