Crossing Voices (Xaraasi Xanne)

Using rare cinematic, photographic and sound archives, Crossing Voices recounts the exemplary adventure of Somankidi Coura, an agricultural cooperative created in Mali in 1977 by migrant workers from West Africa living in France’s workers’ residences, hostels and slums. The story of this improbable, utopic return to the Sahel region follows a winding path that travels through ecological and decolonial challenges from the 1970s to the present day.

One of the major actors of the movement, Bouba Touré, tells this story by plunging into the heart of his personal archives, documenting the fights of farmers in France and in Mali, as well as those of immigrant workers, over a period of decades. Over the course of the film, different voices enter the soundscape to accompany Bouba Touré’s telling, making this a story about dialogues and transmission, friendships and cinematic geographies.