Displacement and the Quest for Identity in Alain Gomis’s Cinema

In this essay, I seek to explore the cinema of Alain Gomis through a focus on his depiction of displacement, particularly in L’Afrance / As a Man (2001), Andalucia / Andalusia (2007), and Tey / Today (2012), in order to show that these films share a similar aesthetic approach. I argue that Gomis’s aesthetic approach is marked by intimacy and embodiment, which are strategies employed within the rich Senegalese film heritage in general. Gomis’s multisensorial cinema features narratives that result from a combination of visual and aural elements, which also suggest an investment in the haptic. The displaced subjects partake in a quest for identity but realize that their displacement, as a psychological state of being, may never be resolved and thus leads to disturbing situations. Gomis’s portrayal of displacement sheds light on contemporary Senegal and the challenges of human mobility, a reality lived by a large part of the population.