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ALLAH TANTOU (GOD’S WILL)
Dir. David Achkar (1991)
“I've never felt so humble, insignificant and yet it is the deepest reason of my happiness: I believe it's the grace of God." Words written by Marof Achkar in a diary smuggled out of Camp Boiro, the infamous concentration camp in central Conakry. Achkar had been a diplomat, UN ambassador, and director of the Ballets Africains. In 1968, at the height of his career representing Sékou Touré's government on the world stage, he was suddenly recalled to Guinea, charged with treason, and sent to the camp, where he remained imprisoned until his execution.
ALLAH TANTOU (1991), a film directed by Achkar's son, David Achkar, traces three intertwined searches: a son looking for his father, a prisoner looking for meaning in captivity, and, in so doing, a continent trying to reckon with the violence of its independence era. Through an assemblage of home movies, letters, newsreels, photographs, reenactments, and diary entries, Achkar attempts and masterfully succeeds in building a portrait of a man and of a country.
In many ways, I see this film as the most honest depiction of my country’s story. The euphoria of 1958 when Sékou Touré declared independence. The slide into repression. The thousands who disappeared into Camp Boiro and the many more forced into exile. Allah Tantou is a fascinating film because it speaks through this uncertainty, and through the gaps in what a son can understand about his father's interior life. Self-writing when a state has tried to erase someone and an entire chapter from history
Featured in , a research film series curated by Max Diallo Jakobsen for the Lusaka Contemporary Arts Centre (LuCAC) in Nov-Dec 2025.
A screening of the film was held in the library of LuCAC, followed by a short presentation and open discussion.
Thursday, 4th December | 18:00 hours
Free & open to all