... Et vint la liberté / ... And Then Freedom Came (2026 restoration The Film Foundation's World Cinema Project)

Sékoumar Barry: ...Et vint la liberté / ... And Then Freedom Came

GN (Guinea) 1967. PC: Sily Film Conakry 1968.

    D+ED: Sékoumar Barry. SC: Sékoumar Barry, Mamadou Bowoi Barry. DP: Sylla Himi. 

    90 min

    Language: French

    Restored in 4K by The Film Foundation’s World Cinema Project and Cineteca di Bologna at L’Immagine Ritrovata laboratory, in association with the Office National du Cinéma Guinéen and the Guinean Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Handicrafts, from the 35mm original camera and sound negatives preserved at the Polish Film Documentary Studios. Sékoumar Barry supervised the color grading. 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 FEPACI and UNESCO – in collaboration with Cineteca di Bologna – to help locate, restore and disseminate African cinema.

    Copy from: Office National du Cinéma Guinéen (ONACIG).

    Subtitles in English and Italian by Sarah Little.

    Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna 2026: Cinemalibero.

    Introduced by Aboubakar Sanogo (FEPACI) and Eiman Hussein [f].

    Viewed at Cinema Jolly, 22 June 2026

Aboubakar Sanogo (Bologna 2026): "Conceived during Sékoumar Barry’s film school days in Belgrade in the early 1960s, Et vint la liberté, his first and only documentary feature film, was directed within the framework of the tenth anniversary celebrations of Guinea’s independence (1958–1968). Shot in Guinea and edited in Poland, the film is one of the prime examples of cinematic internationalism and symptomatic of some of the socialist routes of African film production from the 1960s, 70s and 80s. Seamlessly navigating between past and present and opening up to poetic futurity, Et vint la liberte offers a Masterclass in Guinean and African history, offering an image of a country boldly embracing modernity by anchoring it in a cultural revolution that embraces its glorious political, historical and cultural heritage of struggle, resistance and tremendous creativity. Among its most memorable sequences are the evocation of the long night of Atlantic enslavement and colonial domination; the rare depiction of Guinea’s historic “No” to De Gaulle’s referendum; and a striking montage of the country’s role in global historical processes including decolonization, the Pan Africanist project and Third World movements, featuring never-before-seen images of President Touré meeting leaders such as Ho Chi Minh, Che Guevara, Fidel Castro, Patrice Lumumba, Kwame Nkrumah, Gamal Abd el Nasser, and J. F. Kennedy. Released in January 1969, this epic documentary, embracing at least 800 years of history, is more than a city symphony. It is a “country/continental symphony,” which explores various registers of the documentary voice and form, at once expository, didactic, historical, poetic and meditative, brilliantly using archival footage and photographs, with extraordinary Guinean musical accompaniment. From a cinephilic standpoint, some scenes and sequences of the film converse with such giants of world cinema as Dziga Vertov, Sergei Eisenstein, Alain Resnais, and may be seen as anticipating aspects of Ousmane Sembène and Med Hondo, among others." Aboubakar Sanogo

AA: Sékoumar Barry's And Then Freedom Came is a formidable cinematic history about Guinea's hard road to freedom and independence. It is a history of liberation from colonialism and slavery, not an illustrated lecture but genuinely indispensable as a cinematic source of history. The footage about De Gaulle having to face decolonialization is priceless. The montages of key personalities, historical maps and the progress of industrialization convey dynamism. The cinematographer feasts on the magnificent landscapes. The music is enchanting. The film is alive with the recent turbulence and turmoil, full of enthusiasm for a world that is changing. Perhaps there is "too much for one man" in one screening, but that means that this film demands to be seen again.