Theresa Traorer Dahlberg
Senegal, Sweden | 2011 | 30 min
Languages : French, Wolof
Subtitles : French
Boury Mbaye drives her little yellow taxi through the streets of Dakar. With this small business, the young woman supports her entire extended family. The traffic is chaotic and no comment about women drivers is too stupid to be parroted by her male counterparts. But the Taxi Sisters stick together. Quiet images of the big city round out this portrait of the lively taxi driver.
The woman with the long plaits at the wheel of the little yellow car weaving its way through the streets of Dakar is Boury Mbaye – a self-confident “taxi sister”. Filmmaker Theresa Traore Dahlberg accompanies Boury through the daily dramas which take place in Dakar’s chaotic traffic. At the taxi stand, they encounter a colleague who vents his spleen in a hackneyed monologue on the subject of women drivers. Much more peaceful are the chats with Boury’s customers – their conversations while en route revolve mostly around the topics of love and relationships. While waiting for customers, Boury and her female colleague trade remarks about backpack tourists. Not until she is at home in her room does Boury talk more about her life and work and reveal that she has to support an entire extended family with her small business. Dahlberg combines the taxi journeys and conversations with quiet footage of the Senegalese metropolis. Taxi Sister, Dahlberg’s film degree project at the Stockholm Academy of Fine Arts, is a beautifully filmed portrait of an unstoppable self-made woman.
Jenny Billeter
Translation BMP Translations