[trailer]
At the border between Morocco and Spain, a group of travelers wait anxiously to cross into Europe. They survive one failed attempt after another as they try to keep hope alive for the entire group. Les Voyageurs, woven with a camera and a few songs, resonates as a powerful gesture of resilience.
The film is the matured result of Hamaca's 1st Contrapicada Call for Production, where David Bingong and Irene Gutierrez teamed up to work with the materials David had filmed during his migration to Spain. In Bingong's words, “We made Les Voyageurs to show our day to day life as sub-Saharan immigrants in Morocco from the everyday. We wanted to show our reality as it is, without filters, simply using a handful of songs and videos we created along the way that speak of our community, conflicts and dreams. We were driven by a common achievement to reach: crossing the border fence between Morocco and Spain, one of the most militarized on the planet. This film, shot from attempt to attempt between 2014 and 2015, not only served to capture that reality, but also to give us strength as a group, to empower us.”
The film received the award for Best Medium-length Film at the Visions du Réel festival (Nyon, Switzerland) during its world premiere in April 2025. Throughout this year, the film continues to travel to festivals around the globe.
Funded by Hamaca - Convocatoria Contrapicada
Script: David Bingong
Director of photography: David Bingong, Hyppolite Bingong, Joseph Ilouga, Jean-Marc, Mandela, Waterbele
Camera: David Bingong, Hyppolite Bingong, Joseph Ilouga, Jean-Marc, Mandela, Waterbele
Sound direction: David Bingong, Hyppolite Bingong, Joseph Ilouga, Jean-Marc, Mandela, Waterbele
Editing: Penda Houzangbe
Music: Les Griots de Africa (David Bingong, Joseph Ilouga, Rodrigue Gael Batindi, Yannick Trésor Nzouko, Georges Ngoma, Franck Ayi, Alain Titi, Luc Dikong, Yves Kwedi)
Sound post-production: Audrey Ginestet
Color post-production: Saul Mêmeteau
Distribution: HAMACA, Juliana Schwindt
Associate producers: Miguel Fernandez-Rodriguez Labayen, Kevin Smets
With the support of: Hangar.org, Instituto Cervantes, Reel Borders European Research Council Starting Grant.
