25 June – 30 July 2026

DAKAR

Italian Screens returns to Dakar as part of Fare Cinema 2026, the initiative dedicated to film professions and the promotion of the Italian film industry worldwide.

From June 25 to July 30, 2026, Pathé Cinema Dakar will host six exclusive premieres showcasing the diverse and innovative face of contemporary Italian cinema.

Italian Screens is one of the leading international initiatives dedicated to promoting contemporary Italian cinema around the world, promoted by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation and the Directorate-General for Cinema and Audiovisual of the Ministry of Culture (DGCA-MiC), and coordinated by the International Department of Cinecittà.

The Senegal edition is organized in collaboration with the Italian Cultural Institute of Dakar.

Through screenings and special events, Italian Screens brings the best of contemporary Italian film production to international audiences, while also highlighting the support mechanisms available to the sector, including tax incentives, distribution opportunities, and programs supporting international co-productions.

The Dakar program offers a journey through contemporary Italian cinema, moving between memory and the present, imagination and reality, where intimate stories, social perspectives, and new narrative languages intertwine. The selection portrays an Italy in motion, shaped by themes such as identity, youth, desire, power, and freedom, offering Senegalese audiences an original perspective on contemporary Italy and its ongoing transformations.

L’evento si apre con La Grazia di Paolo Sorrentino, un film che racconta la storia di un Presidente della Repubblica alle prese con decisioni complesse. Attraverso i suoi dubbi, i suoi affetti e le responsabilità del ruolo, il film esplora il rapporto tra potere, scelte personali e conseguenze pubbliche.

The program continues with A Year of School by Laura Samani, which explores the dynamics of adolescence, the desire to belong, and the search for identity, highlighting the challenges faced by a young woman in a predominantly male world. It is followed by La città proibita, a work that blends action and drama to tell a story of cultural encounters, migration, and the pursuit of freedom in a multicultural Rome.

Next comes Head or Tales? by Alessio Rigo de Righi e Matteo Zoppis, an original Western set in early twentieth-century Italy that, through a sweeping romantic adventure, reflects on myths, justice, and the desire for emancipation.

The program concludes with Duse by Pietro Marcello, an intense portrait of Eleonora Duse that explores the relationship between identity, creative freedom, and personal resilience against the backdrop of a period of profound change, and Sweetheart by Margherita Spampinato, a tender and engaging story that contrasts modernity and tradition, reason and spirituality, recounting the birth of a bond capable of overcoming differences and prejudice.

All films will be screened in their original language version with French subtitles.