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The Strong Man of Bureng

Former UN soldier Essa has fled the Gambia for Finland, where he has successfully set up a business that provides for his family. Back in his hometown Bureng, he is celebrated as a hero. During a visit home, world events catch up with him: The coronavirus outbreak jeopardises Essa’s return to Europe and his application to renew his residence permit, plunging him into one of the most serious crises of his life.
"The Strong Man of Bureng" is both a contemporary odyssey and an intimate story of the deep motivations that have brought a person to leave his own country in an effort to satisfy universal needs.

  • Mauro Bucci
    Director
  • Mauro Bucci
    Writer
  • Mauro Bucci
    Producer
  • Essa J. Darboe
    Key Cast
  • Project Type:
    Documentary
  • Runtime:
    1 hour 15 minutes 37 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    October 15, 2023
  • Country of Origin:
    Italy
  • Country of Filming:
    Finland, Gambia, Italy
  • Language:
    Afrikaans, English, Finnish
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Coliseum International Film Festival
    Rome
    Italy
    December 13, 2023
    World premiere
    AWARD Best Cinematic Editing - National Documentary film
  • Activists Without Borders Film Festival
    Manchester
    United Kingdom
    December 16, 2023
    UK Premiere
  • Rapport Festival of Film
    London
    United Kingdom
    March 27, 2024
  • RPFF - Riga Pasaules Film Festival
    Riga
    Latvia
    April 27, 2024
    Latvia Premiere
  • KRATFEST – Kratovo International Festival of Ethnological Documentary Film
    Kratovo
    September 29, 2023
    Work in progress screening
  • SamhainBaucogna International Film Festival
    Almonte
    Spain
    November 22, 2024
    Spanish premiere
    Best Feature Lenght Documentary MONTHLY COMPETITION
  • Ethnocineca – International Documentary Film Festival Vienna
    Vienna
    Austria
    May 20, 2024
    Austrian Premiere
  • FESCAAAL - Festival del Cinema Africano, d'Asia e America Latina
    Milan
    Italy
    May 5, 2024
    Milan Premiere
  • FISDN - Signs of the Night
    Urbino
    Italy
    April 14, 2024
    Main Award
  • African Diaspora Cinema Festival (ADCF)
    Florence
    Italy
    June 28, 2024
  • Festival de Cine Etnográfico de Ecuador (FCEE)
    San Salvador
    Ecuador
    July 6, 2024
    South America Premiere
  • NAFA - Nordic Anthropological Film Association
    Lofoten
    Norway
  • Days of Ethnographic Cinema
    Moscow
    Russian Federation
    September 16, 2024
    Russian Premiere
    Official Selection
  • Festiwal Filmowy NNW
    Gdynia
    Poland
    November 6, 2024
    Polish Premiere
    Official Selection
  • Sofia Biting Docs
    Sofia
    Bulgaria
    August 6, 2024
    Bulgarian Premiere
    Official Selection
  • Festival international Signes de Nuit
    Paris
    France
    October 10, 2024
    French Premiere
    Official Selection
  • Monadnock International Film Festival
    Keen
    United States
    October 8, 2024
    US Premiere
    Official Selecion
  • Immigration Film Festival
    Washington
    United States
    October 18, 2024
    Official Selection
  • KIEFF - Korean Society for Visual Anthropology
    Seul
    Korea, Democratic People's Republic of
    December 26, 2024
    Asian Premiere
    Official selection
  • IFF - ETHNOFILM Čadca
    Čadca
    Slovakia
    November 10, 2024
    Slovak Premiere
    Second Place award
  • WAU - WORLD ANTHROPOLOGICAL UNION CONGRESS 2024​
    Johannesburg
    South Africa
    November 14, 2024
    South Africa Premiere
    Official Selection
  • Africa International Human Rights Film Festival
    Lagos
    Nigeria
    December 9, 2024
    Nigerian Premiere
    Official Selection
  • Tangier Film Festival
    Tangeri
    Morocco
    November 23, 2024
    Moroccan Premiere
    Best Documentary Award
  • SamhainBaucogna International Film Festival
    Tangier
    Morocco
    November 22, 2024
    Best Italian Documentary - Final Competition
Distribution Information
  • Mauro Bucci Ethnographic Films
    Distributor
    Country: Italy
    Rights: All Rights
Director Biography - Mauro Bucci

Mauro Bucci is an Italian award-winning filmmaker and independent researcher working in the field of Visual Anthropology. He is particularly concerned with film’s potential for studying and understanding human experiences and cultural practices. He has authored scientific essays on ethnographic cinema for both Italian and international journals and books, and he has held seminars, summer schools and master classes focused on the theories and techniques of representing social phenomena through film.

Mauro Bucci's filmmaking method is based on long-term ethnographic fieldwork, during which he establishes a bond with the people being filmed to better understand their everyday lives and points of view. For his films, he worked as a one-man crew shooting video, recording sound, and editing footage to maintain complete authorial control over the work. He applied this method in "Hotel Splendid", a documentary that portrays the lives of an African community hosted in an Italian hotel that has been converted into an emergency refugee camp. In his latest film, "The Strong Man of Bureng", using a similar approach, he explores the theme of circular migration, closely following the protagonist across different continents and life experiences.

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

“The Strong Man of Bureng” is a documentary film made over 4 years of filming and field research conducted at different times and living in close contact with the people filmed. The documentary is the result of a multisite ethnography between Gambia, Finland and Italy and it is a project on the topic of circular or return migrations.
The film explores the centrality of interpersonal relationships between migrants, their families, and their homelands: it portrays the invaluable role played by this intangible web of human connections – made of social expectations, values, responsibilities, and pressures – in shaping the dynamics and patterns of the diaspora phenomenon that links Africa and Europe.