Fatima is a little girl of eight years. By opening and closing the refrigerator, she wonders if the light stays on when the door closes...

El Hadj is studying in Paris. He is one of the young Senegalese men who have come to Paris since the French colony became independent to get a good education so that he can serve his fatherland on his return. Unexpectedly he is suddenly confronted by a problem with his residence papers, just because he has arranged an extension too late. His pleasant life filled with good prospects has gone in one fell swoop. He faces a dilemma. He can stay illegally in France, the country where he feels at home, where he has his friends, has fallen in love and can drink water from the tap. Or he can return (without graduating) to the 3rd-world country of Senegal to use the knowledge he has acquired. It is not only a practical choice. It comes down to the question of who he is, who he thought he could be.

Bizet's Carmen gets a modern adaptation. Seducting, provocating, sensual. All the ingredients for a perfect drama. With her charm, Karmen gets out of many situations.

Satché is about to die. He decides to make his last day on this world the day of his life.

Burial of a Christian political activist in a Muslim cemetary forces a conflict imbued with religious fervor.

A Senegalese platoon of soldiers from the French Free Army are returned from combat in France and held for a temporary time in a military encampment with barbed wire fences and guard towers in the desert. Among their numbers are Sergeant Diatta, the charismatic leader of the troop who was educated in Paris and has a French wife and child, and Pays, a Senegalese soldier left in a state of shock from the war and concentration camps and who can only speak in guttural screams and grunts.

France, 2033. Olivier, an engineer, and Pauline, a teacher, decide to emigrate to the United States of Africa because they can no longer live in their country.

Dakar, Senegal. Ousmane, a 7 year old child, begs in the streets. He decides to write a letter to Santa Claus.

A Senegalese bank-robber born and raised in France is getting over a disastrous heist. As he considers going straight, his cousin calls him from Dakar with an easy opportunity.

French couple Jean and Marie go on their honeymoon in Jean's hometown in Africa. They end up in the middle of a tense political situation as soon as they arrive and must spend the night in hiding. Jean begins to take on some of his father's old French colonialist attitude, which comes into drastic conflict with their current situation. As they struggle to stay alive, Marie rethinks her marriage to Jean.

A Senegalese man living in Paris with his French wife and children receives a letter from his father back home saying he has arranged for him to take a second wife. The man's indecision outrages his French wife and leads to the end of his marriage, his return to Senegal and his reflection about how his life has ended up.

In the aftermath of the Algerian War, a young Algerian woman reaches a strange reconciliation with the Senegalese officer who raped and impregnated her.