En résidence surveillée
New York African Film Festival 2026
May 6 - 12
Pioneering Senegalese filmmaker Paulin Soumanou Vieyra’s biting political satire is set in a fictional African state where corruption, media control, and forced exile reveal the human cost of unchecked power. Preceded by Ahmad Cissé’s N’Dobine and Stéphane Soumanou Vieyra’s Vieyra, The Innovative Pioneer.
The only feature-length fiction film by pioneering Senegalese filmmaker Paulin Soumanou Vieyra, whose seminal work Afrique sur Seine (1955) was the first film made entirely by Africans, En résidence surveillée unfolds in a fictional African state caught in the grip of political and economic turmoil. Through satire and keen observation, the film follows a society grappling with corrupt leadership, media controlled by the authorities, and the forced exile of political figures. A visionary filmmaker and incisive analyst of post-independence Africa, Vieyra captures the complexities and contradictions of governance and public life with striking clarity. Decades after its release, his children championed the restoration of this extraordinary political satire, bringing renewed attention to both the film and their father’s enduring legacy.
Preceded by:
N’Dobine
Ahmad Cissé, 2026, U.S., 6m
World Premiere
N’Dobine follows a traveler navigating his heart and past, guided by ritual and spirituality, as an unforeseen obstacle tests his journey of offering.
Vieyra, The Innovative Pioneer
Stéphane Soumanou Vieyra, 2025, France, 9m
French with English subtitles
U.S. Premiere
Vieyra, The Innovative Pioneer imagines a virtual encounter between pioneering Senegalese filmmaker Paulin Soumanou Vieyra and his grandsons during a visit to a museum retracing his life, highlighting his childhood, his encounters, his studies, and his work.
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