Art on the MOve: Un dessert pour Constance

Where do French haute cuisine and the Parisian garbage collection service intersect? In Sarah Maldoror’s hearty and sarcastic feature film *Un dessert pour Constance*.

While on the job, Mamadou and Bokolo, two Senegalese street sweepers, fish an antique cookbook containing the finest 19th-century French recipes out of a trash can. The book becomes their favorite pastime—until they suddenly sense an opportunity: to buy their sick friend a plane ticket to Senegal, they enter a culinary TV quiz show. Will they win?

A Dessert for Constance
Director: Sarah Maldoror
France 1981 | Feature Film | 61′ | Original Version with English Subtitles

Sarah Maldoror was the first Black female director to shoot feature films on the African continent, mostly on the themes of national independence and international resistance. *Un dessert pour Constance* is not only a compelling portrait of solidarity among Black workers in France, but also a passionate plea for the art of masterful craftsmanship: whether in the cook’s refined palate or the street sweeper’s perfected swing of the broom!

Free admission.

The film is presented as part of the exhibition“Trash: An Exhibition on the Global Pathways of Waste,” which also sheds light on global recycling cycles.

The event is part of the “Art on the MOve” film series, a joint initiative of the Museum Ostwall and the International Women’s Film Festival Dortmund+Cologne.

In cooperation with the German Cookbook Museum and EDG.