In 1999, in New York, a young immigrant from Guinea, Amadou Diallo, was shot dead by four white police officers; he did not show his ID quickly enough when they asked for it. Guinea-French director and actor Hakim Bah was inspired by Amadou Diallo’s tragic death and created the immersive ‘Pourvu que la Mastication ne soit pas longue’ (As long as the Chewing does not last too long).

Following the death of George Floyd and the rise of Black Lives Matter, Hakim Bah looks back at this other blunder by the police. He denounces a society in which black people are at risk of becoming targets of institutional racism and violence.
He tells about Amadou. Migrant from Guinea, his job, his dream to study, his desire to integrate.
He describes the city of New York, its noise, its energy and negative force.
And that particular night with trigger-happy cops firing 41 bullets.
With a verdict by the judge ‘not guilty’.

‘Pourvu que la Mastication ne soit pas longue’ gives a voice to the anger about the everyday reality of racism as exposed by Black Lives Matter. While Hakim Bah almost raps his poetic lyrics, acrobat Juan Tula accompanies him with his Cyr Wheel, a metaphor for incumbency and institutional violence against black people. The music of Arthur Gillette’s evokes the ambience of New York from the era of mayor Rudy Giuliani’s zero-tolerance policy.
French spoken, this performance features English surtitles. Previously seen Festival d’Avignon 2021, Festival de Lausanne 2022, Alliance Francaise New York 2023

AMSTERDAM | DE BALIE
Sat 14 October, 20H30

UTRECHT | THEATER KIKKER
Sun 15 October, 20H00