“I rediscover the tragic stories of Senegalese soldiers thanks to the stories of my father” – Corriere.it

“Tirailleurs “
they were called the fusiliers of French North Africa. Young people from to recruitoften by force, in colonial villages and ship to the front of the Great War. “TO fight and die for a homeland never seen before, whose language they often did not even know “recalls Omar Sy, who wanted to dedicate a film to those sacrificed and forgotten soldiers,”Tirailleur “director Mathieu Vadepied, presented to Cannes and now applauded a France Odeon, French film festival in Florence. “The Italian city I love the most,” confesses Sy, born in France, quarter of eight children from immigrants
of Senegal, mother waitress, father worker. A comic talent, discovered for fun on the radio and then on TV and in the cinema, consecrated with “Almost friends“blockbuster comedy, which earned him the César for the best actor. The first black to receive it. From there Hollywood opens its doors to him, the successes of “Jurassic World“ and of “Lupine “
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And now, at 44, he changes register. A dramatic role for a story that has to do with his origins. Even with his family?
“Not directly. But my father told us about what had happened in so many families in his country. Two hundred thousand young Senegalese were sent to the front line, 30 thousand never returned. That story stuck in my head, even if I didn’t find it in school books. On this in France there is a kind of repression, a sense of guilt still to be faced. She came back out on the set of “Almost friends”, Speaking with director of photography Vadepied, who was also struck by how little she was known».

What made you decide?
«A question thrown there by Mathieu: what if the Unknown Soldier, if the bones collected on the Verdun field and buried under the Arc de Triomphe, were of a Senegalese soldier? That was the sense of the story. We wanted to show an “intimate” war, at human height, with a father and a son as protagonists. The first who only thinks about how to get home alive, the second who succumbs to the charm of the uniform. At first I was supposed to play Thierno, the son, but when the film arrived I was too old for the part and I became Bakary, the father. ‘

And Bakary only speaks Peul, the most widespread language in Senegal.
“That of my parents, the first I heard and talked about as a child. Filming in the Peul language was exciting and decisive. It allowed me to highlight things that I had never shown on screen before. ‘

Thierno (Alassane Diong) speaks French instead and can establish contacts with “foreigners”.
«For Thierno, the war becomes an opportunity for growth, to break away from his father. The French allows him to meet different gazes, to find an interlocutor in an officer who considers him, gives him responsibility. Wearing a uniform can change a person ».

The final meaning of the film?
«May it push, especially young people, to discover removed pages of our history. “Tirailleurs” it is dedicated to the Senegalese soldiers, to the Africans, to all the unknown soldiers of every war. The great story is made up of the stories of each of them ».

You are the father of five children: how do you intend to transmit that memory to them?

“My children are of different ages, some are still very young. I don’t think it’s the time to make ideological speeches, but to solicit questions. To which I always try to answer ».

Does being a father on screen help you get into the role better in life too?

“Every time I play a father, my relationship with my children changes. And my relationship as a child with my father changes. ”

Lupine is also a father, single, with a double identity. Third season from 11 November on Netflix.
“To find his son Lupine, he moved the world. And now to protect him she will have to live away from him. Look and you will know everything! ».

Your next film?
«In Italy, among the Sassi of Matera. “The Book of Clarence “, director Jeymes Samuel, rapper LaKeith Stanfield with me. I can’t say anything else, except that it will surprise you ».

Sy sews his mouth, but he speaks of a biblical blockbuster all to laugh, Monty Python style. Where Sy, catapulted into 29 AD, will do even worse than Lupine.