Dao Berlin International Film Festival Share on Facebook Share on X Google Preferred Share to Flipboard Show additional share options Share on LinkedIn Share on Pinterest Share on Reddit Share on Tumblr Share on Whats App Send an Email Print the Article Post a Comment The movies of writer-director Alain Gomis have often drifted between two separate continents and cultures. On the one side there's France, where his mother comes from - and where Gomis grew up and studied film before making his first feature, the aptly titled immigrant drama L'Afrance. And on the other side there's the Africa of his father, where the director has shot several movies over the past decade, including Félicité, the gritty story of a singer in the Democratic Republic of Congo that won Berlin's Silver Bear award back in 2017. Gomis returns to the Berlinale with Dao, a sprawling tale of two ceremonies, which - as if to prove the above point - takes place simultaneously between France and Guinea-Bissau, where some of the director's relatives hail from. Gomis further blurs the lines between fact and fiction by including members of his own family among the cast, mixing them with amateur performers and a few seasoned French stars. The result is unlike any regular narrative feature, immersing the viewer in a collective experience that the actors seem to be living out in real time while we watch them. Related Stories Movies Berlin According To: Alexander Rodnyansky Movies Tracy Letts Says Wealth Disparity "Probably Creates Fascism," and Callum Turner Addresses Bond Rumors in Berlin: "I'm Not Going to Comment" Dao The Bottom Line Ambitious and authentic, but indulgent. Venue: Berlin Film Festival (Competition)Cast: Katy Correa, D'Johé Kouadio, Samir Guesmi, Mike Etienne, Nicolas Gomis, Fara Baco Gomis, Poundo GomisDirector, screenwriter: Alain Gomis 3 hours 5 minutes Yet at just over three hours, and without a classic plotline, Dao can also be a patience-tester for those unwilling to groove to its improvised storytelling. Not exactly straightforward fiction and not really a documentary either, it sits in a unique place that offers viewers some moments of authenticity but grows monotonous as time goes by. Set between a rowdy wedding in the French countryside and a death commemoration ritual in a tiny African village, the film focuses on an extended clan that's united, and sometimes divided, by the two major events taking place over the course of the movie. Gomis, who's credited along with five other editors, cuts from one ceremony to the other without warning, creating a vivid menagerie of sights, sounds, rites, languages, faces and places. Both happenings are attended by the mother-daughter team of Béa (Katy Correa) and Nour (D'Johé Kouadio), who form the core of the cast and the closest thing to protagonists. They're accompanied by Béa's brothers (Mike Etienne, Nicolas Gomis, Fara Baco Gomis) and sister (Poundo Gomis), along with other people who weave in and out of the story at various points, making it hard to keep track of everyone at the same time. But that seems to be Gomis' intention. He's less interested in plot and character than in creating a certain vibe. (It's no surprise that the director's previous film, Rewind & Play, was an archival documentary about jazz legend Thelonious Monk.) According to the press notes, there was never a real script for Dao, and it shows in certain scenes that ramble on without much shape. The drama does flare up at times between some of the real-fake siblings, but it's never sustained for long. The opening sequences feature Gomis in a Paris studio auditioning first-time actors Correa and Kouadio, along with a host of other potential cast members. He returns to these rehearsal scenes throughout the movie, breaking the fourth wall to underscore how Dao is less fiction and more like one long ensemble acting exercise constantly shifting between locations. In Guinea-Bissau, Nour accompanies Béa for a ceremony honoring the latter's father, who died two years prior. Béa hasn't returned to Africa for a long time, while Nour has never seen the land of her mother, nor the village that her grandfather helped keep afloat by working as an immigrant in France. As other relatives arrive for the commemoration, Nour discovers a vital side of her family she's never known, losing herself in dancing, eating, drinking, praying and other rituals over several long days and nights. Back in France, Nour gets married to her boyfriend in a festive country wedding filled with many of the same family members seen back in Africa, not to mention scores of friends and a few veteran actors - including Samir Guesmir, who starred in Gomis' feature Andalucia and plays Nour's divorced dad. But it's Béa who's the main focus of the French scenes, watching with joy and anticipation as her daughter gets betrothed but feeling a certain underlying melancholy as she grows old surrounded by her loved ones. There's not much else in terms of plot,