Manthia Diawara is a Malian researcher, writer and director who has developed a prolific and acclaimed body of work in the area of Black culture studies, with a focus on Black and African diasporic cinema. At Batalha, he presents the national premiere of his new film A Letter From Yene. In this film, Diawara takes on the role of narrator, writing to us from the village of Yene in Senegal where he lives some of the time. Recordings of encounters and conversations with the locals slowly reveal the story of a fishing community destroyed by uncontrolled urbanisation and erosion of the coast. A Letter From Yene was commissioned by the Serpentine Galleries (London) as part of the project Back To Earth, which sees a group of artists, architects, poets, filmmakers, theorists and designers invited to develop initiatives responding to the environmental crisis.

Talk moderated by Jürgen Bock — in English, and with simultaneous translation. Free entrance upon ticket pickup, limited to two tickets per person.