Dao (deutsche Kinopremiere)

In the organizer's words:

Dao (German theatrical premiere)

D.: Alain Gomis, 2026, France/Senegal/Guinea-Bissau, 185', French/Mandjak/Wolof/Portuguese-Creole with English subtitles

Film screening

Followed by a discussion between Alain Gomis and Marie-Helene Pereira and Q&A (in French with simultaneous English translation)

A wedding in France and a funeral service in Guinea-Bissau: in Dao, director Alain Gomis uses these two rituals to combine family memory with collective history and cinematic fiction - between Europe and West Africa, life and death, past and present. The film tells the story of a generation that lives between different places and memories. The central question is: What remains when families live scattered across continents? Which stories are told? And which ones remain unspoken for a long time?

The title Dao is inspired by Taoist ideas and stands for a continuous, circular flow of life that embodies the balance of opposites such as birth and death, migration and home, fiction and reality. Professional and non-professional actors - including members of Gomis' family - improvised during filming in deliberately open situations on set. The result is an immersive epic that brings its philosophy to life rather than explaining it: a collective act of remembrance, life affirmation and self-assurance. People gather, talk, remember and invent new ways of living together.

After its world premiere in the competition of the Berlinale 2026, Dao celebrates its German cinema premiere with this screening at HKW, in the presence of director Alain Gomis.

Location: Miriam Makeba Auditorium

Price information:

Tickets from 28.4.2026, 14:00