While getting ready for her daughter’s wedding in Paris, Gloria reflects on the last time her extended family gathered in ritual, in Guinea-Bissau, to commemorate the loss of her father.
Kinetic, freewheeling, cross-continental... an idea-rich but extravagantly sensory film.
Dao 2026
Gloria’s daughter is about to be married in France, a gathering of extended family that prompts Gloria to reflect on a ceremony that took place years before, in Guinea-Bissau, to consecrate her father as an ancestor. Swirling between these two worlds, this observational Altman-esque ensemble vividly explores memory, belonging, culture and history.
Actors and non-actors make up the family at the heart of the film, drifting in and out of each others’ orbits with love, laughter and pain alike. In his experimental, playful approach, French-Senegalese director Alain Gomis even includes members of his own family in the cast.
Nominated for the Golden Bear at Berlinale, Dao is a sprawling hybrid of drama and documentary that buzzes with energy and heart, examining the effects of migration and diaspora on a community with a propulsive aliveness where distance is no match for family ties.
– Amanda Jane Robinson