Senegalese filmmaker Angele Diabang Brener has scored a cinematic homerun with her debut feature film, So Long a Letter which had its North American Premiere at BAM-Brooklyn Academy of Music as part of the 32nd New York African Film Festival and Film Africa 2025. Based on the 1979 novel of the same name (in French as Une si longue lettre)

 by Mariama Bâ (Les Nouvelles Éditions Africaines du Sénégal-1979), the film takes a well thought out look at a very thorny issue in modern-day Africa, that of polygamy. Diabang’s adaptation of Mariama Bâ’s feminist classic explores a woman’s defiance in the face of betrayal.

We see the film’s lead character, Ramatoulaye (a long-suffering Amélie Mbaye) who is a woman of substance, living in Senegal’s capital city of Dakar. Newly widowed, she decides to write a letter to her old friend Aissatou, who lives in America. 

 In keeping with Muslim custom, Ramatoulaye must observe a mirasse, a forty-day period of isolation and mourning. Over the course of this period, she keeps a diary, which she eventually intends to send to Aissatou.   

The deep-seated emotion Ramatoulaye expresses is not only a reflection of her deep sense of remorse over the death of her husband, but the unsettling circumstances that preceded his death. After 30 years of marriage and seven children, her husband Madou (a stately Serge Abbesolo) has decided to take a second wife. Although he is a prominent lawyer, his decision to observe this ancient custom fly in the face of the image of modern-day Africa, not to mention the distress and humiliation it has brought to his wife and family. Although part of Senegal’s upper class, Modou’s decision also, as we later learn, nearly drives his present wife and their children into the streets.

So Long a Letter deals with multiple themes, which includes the life of women in Senegal during the 1970s, family and community life, Islam and polygamy, and death rituals.[7]

“So Long a Letter explores the tensions between Ramatoulaye’s feminist values and her religion, which is often used to justify the mistreatment of women,” director Brenner told the audience at BAM during the Q. and A. after the premiere screening. “There is a lot of misinterpretation and misappropriation of Islamic scripture that blinds many to the inherent sexism that justifies polygamy. It’s up to a new generation of women to carry a different message forward.”

So Long a Letter has yet to open in Senegal. Brenner says there is already a great deal of social media buzz surrounding the prospect. When asked if she expected censorship or controversy in her home country, Berner said she was doubtful. With the current president and prime minister active practitioners of polygamy, that is yet to be seen. The film opens in Senagal in July.

So Long a Letter, In French and Wolof with English subtitles. For more on the film and the 32nd New York African Film Festival, visit africanfilmny.org.