Camp de Thiaroye, a landmark of African cinema, tells the story of a largely forgotten chapter in France’s colonial history. The film centres on West African soldiers—the so-called Tirailleurs sénégalais—who fought against the Nazis in the French army during the Second World War. After the war ends, they return to a military camp in Thiaroye near Dakar and wait for their outstanding pay as well as their return to their hometowns. When they begin to protest against the unequal treatment and the lack of pay, the French military leadership responds with massive violence.  

In Camp de Thiaroye, film-maker Ousmane Sembène, who was recruited as a Tirailleur himself, reconstructs the events around the historic 1944 massacre in Thiaroye and links political analysis with intriguing portraits. With its critical portrayal of colonial power structures as well as the unequal treatment and humiliation of West African soldiers, Camp de Thiaroye ranks among the most important films of African anti-colonial cinema. 

The film was rejected by the Cannes International Film Festival in 1988 but won an award at the Venice International Film Festival that same year. For a long time, it was banned in France and had limited availability overall—in part because a Swiss distributor had purchased the European rights for the next ten years, not to screen the film, but to ensure that it remained completely blocked. 

Restored by The Film Foundation’s World Cinema Project and Cineteca di Bologna at L’Immagine Ritrovata laboratory in association with the Tunisian Ministry of Culture and the Senegalese Ministry of Culture and Historical Heritage. Special thanks to Mohammed Challouf. Restoration funded by the Hobson/Lucas Family Foundation. This restoration is part of the African Film Heritage Project, an initiative created by The Film Foundation’s World Cinema Project, the Pan African Federation of Filmmakers and UNESCO—in collaboration with Cineteca di Bologna—to help locate, restore, and disseminate African cinema.