Conakry, Guinea. On September 28, 2009, during the first round of presidential elections, the elite Praetorian Guard engaged in a massacre in the 28 September Stadium. 2010, on the eve of the second round, in a tense context, many exactions are committed, particularly in the suburbs, in Hamdalaye. 20o18, Thomas Bauer meets a group of young plaintiffs. And this small troupe organizes rehearsals in order to prepare for a hypothetical trial. To judge, to investigate? The stakes here are different: how to tell history, its false pretenses. First of all, it will be a covered terrace transformed into a scene in which they are the only actors and spectators. False pretences, the city visible below. It is necessary to take back, adjust, find the words, adapt to the judicial rhetoric in French: "il ne faut pas...", "tu dois...". This circumstantial troupe lends itself to the game of inscribing the common, as suggested by the lines drawn on the wall, like a staff waiting for a score. In this makeshift setting, a white sheet shaken by the wind, a few costumes in counterpoint to the military uniforms - caps, barrettes - attire for other games, other roles. A question of representation regime, and a twisting movement, this process of fiction opens on a pas de deux of History. While outside, in the form of a counter-field and reminiscence, the stadium emerges, here a troupe of improbable singers, the Palais du peuple deserted, and the presence of NGOs evoked in the rehearsals, or De Gaulle constantly invoked, remain in memory. Other underground games and interlockings can then be guessed. Where the process of substitution that takes shape before our eyes mirrors other political theatres and allows other connections to emerge.
Source: Fidmarseille

A documentary film by Thomas Bauer

Original version: Soussou, poular and French.
Subtitles: French.
Image: Thomas Bauer, Daouda Camara.
Editing: Félix Rehm.
Music: Sekou Bembeya Diabaté.
Sound: Djibril Mansare.
Starring: Thierno Ousmane Diallo, Mamadou Billaly Guissé, Ibrahima Kalil Diallo, Mamadou Saïdou Baldé, Fousseny Dia, Sekou Bembeya Diabaté.
Production: Poteau d'angle (Judith Abensour), OGDH - FIDH DIALLO (Abdoul Gadiry).
Distribution: Thomas Bauer.