VALDIODIO

The story is told by a little girl, 10 years old, she is the daughter of the hero of Senegal’s independence, Valdiodio N'Diaye .The film highlights an obscure moment of African independence and questions the official version of History. Valdiodio is unfairly accused of having fomented a Coup d'Etat alongside Council President Mamadou Dia. The film recount the masquerade of the procedure orchestrated by President Senghor who eliminated with the complicity of France a team considered too sovereignist. We discover the prison of Kedougou, in the heart of Senegal, where these elites were forced into isolation for 12 long years. Despite the separation, an invisible bond is woven between father and daughter. The short story meets the big story since the film is based on true events.

  • Amina N'Diaye Leclerc
    Director
  • Amina N'Diaye Leclerc
    Writer
  • Amina N'Diaye Leclerc
    Producer
  • Pierre Mathiote
    Producer
  • Souleymane Sèye Ndiaye
    Key Cast
    "Valdiodio"
  • Valentine Stach
    Key Cast
    "Claire"
  • Alassane Sy
    Key Cast
    "Mamadou Dia"
  • Project Type:
    Feature
  • Runtime:
    2 hours
  • Completion Date:
    January 31, 2025
  • Production Budget:
    500,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    Senegal
  • Country of Filming:
    Senegal
  • Language:
    French
  • Shooting Format:
    HD
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
Distribution Information
  • cinérgie productions
    Sales Agent
    Country: France
Director Biography - Amina N'Diaye Leclerc

CV Author - Director

Amina N'Diaye Leclerc
French and Senegalese nationality.

Production of creative documentaries.

2021 Valdiodio N'Diaye, A Trial For History
86' documentary film

Presentation in Quebec with 5 screening-debates in February 2023.
Views of Africa 2021 selection (Montreal) Feature film competition.
Fespaco 2021 selection (Ouagadougou) Feature film competition.
Nova Brussels 2021 selection
Cajarc Festival 2021 selection

Cannes Film Festival 2021, previewed.

Broadcasts:
TV5 World in 2021.2022. 2023.
Senegalese TV Walfadjri in 2021.
Broadcast Senegal Place du Souvenir Dakar and regions (Organized by the Ministry of Culture). French Alliance in Kaolack.

2000 Valdiodio N'Diaye, The Independence of Senegal.
52’ documentary film, co-directed with Eric Cloué.
Presented by the Organization of La Francophonie at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival
Broadcast TV5 Monde, History Channel, Canal France International, TV5 Africa, 2STV Senegal.

Selected at the Namur International Film Festival, Amiens Festival, Friborg Festival in Switzerland, Vues d'Afrique Festival in Montreal, Images d'Ailleurs Festival in Paris, presented in Cannes in 2000. DVD distributed by the Médiathèque des Trois Mondes .
Broadcast in Dakar at the French Cultural Center, at the Alliance française in Kaolack and at the Goethe Institut in Dakar.

Theatrical release on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of African Independence in 2010 (Paris, Marseille, Carcassonne, Geneva, Clamart), and in the Utopia circuit (Toulouse, Bordeaux). Series of conferences in many cities in France.

1996 Jo'Burg Alive,
52' documentary film, by Eric Cloué. Assistant director.
Broadcast La Cinq.

1995 S like Senegal,
27' documentary film, by Eric Cloué. Assistant director.
Broadcast TV5 Monde and Canal France International

1992 The Kingdom of Passage
80' LM film, by Eric Cloué. Assistant director.
With Aïssa Maïga. Broadcast on France 2.

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

It is a fiction which depicts a human tragedy which concerns the hero of the story, Valdiodio N'Diaye, unjustly erased from official history, but it is through the eyes of his daughter Amina that his trajectory is told. Amina is me and I am witnessing, at the age of 10, events that will turn the lives of my entire family upside down. I recount the arrest of my father, our expulsion, the visits of Claire, my Mother to the Kédougou penal colony with the ban on me seeing my father. The little girl wonders about the reasons for such relentlessness on her family. This is the reason of state, of course, but why do children have to endure the rivalries of adults? Why was it necessary to impose this painful exile on them? They are four brothers and sisters, but there are also their two cousins ​​who live with them. They settled in France with their mother and aunt, Claire, and then experienced long years of solitude and, above all, waiting. An invisible bond is woven between the incarcerated father and his daughter Amina. They each experience strange situations where they find the same gestures, the same pains, never verbalized.