Moussa Bathily

• Name — Moussa Bathily • Born — 1946 • Birthplace — Bakel, Senegal • Occupation — Film director, filmmaker, screen writer, novelist and history teacher • Language — French, Soninke, Wolof • Notable Works — films Tiyabu Biru (Circumcision, 1978) and Le Certificat d'indigence (Poverty Certificate, 1981)

Born in Bakel, East Senegal, as the Soninke son of a provincial governor, Bathily studied at a French colonial school and at the Dakar Lycée Van Vollenhoven (later named Lamine-Guèye). Starting in 1968, he read history at the Cheikh Anta Diop University at Dakar and graduated on a thesis on Blaise Diagne, who was in 1914 the first West African member elected to the French Chamber of Deputies. Bathily worked for three years as a history teacher in Rufisque, West Senegal, and wrote film reviews for the Dakar newspaper Le Soleil. Returning to Dakar he met filmmakers such as Djibril Diop Mambety and Mahama Johnson Traoré at the forerunner of the later Institut Français du Sénégal and started directing realist short films and documentaries, and later features.

Bathily published two novels in French: * *

Bathily's films include: • Year — Film — Genre — Role — Duration (min) • 1974 — Centre International de Dakar — Documentary short — Director — 21 m • 1975 — FIDAK (The International Fair of Dakar) — Documentary short — Director — 20 m • 1976 — Des Personnages Encombrants (Obstructing characters) — Short fiction — Director — 25 m • 1976 — N'dakaru. Impressions matinales (Dakar Morning Impressions) — Short — Director and producer — 20 m • 1977 — Ceddo by Ousmane Sembène — Historical feature in French and Wolof — Assistant director — 120 m • 1978 — Tiyabu Biru (Circumcision) — Drama feature in Soninke — Director — 85 m • 1980 — Dakar, Capitale et Ville Carrefour (Dakar, capital and crossroad city) — Documentary short — Director • 1981 — Siggy. La Poliomyelite — Docufiction on polio vaccination for the United Nations — Producer — 40 m • 1983 — Le certificat d'indigence (Poverty Certificate) — Short — Director and screen writer — 29 m • 1983 — Des Sites et Des Monuments au Sénégal (Sites and monuments in Senegal) — Documentary — Director — 45 m • 1987 — Petits blancs au manioc et à la sauce gombos (White Beans with Cassava or Gombo Sauce) — Drama feature — Director and co-screen writer with Roger Grullemin — 90 m • 1993 — Biliyaane / L'Archer Bassari, after a crime novel by Modibo Sounkalo Keita — Drama feature — Director and screen writer — 90 m • 2005 — Atlantic Express — Drama feature — Director and producer — 102 m

Moussa Bathily is recorded with the occupation film director. Recorded as journalist, writer, film director and screenwriter.