Tey celebrates last day of life

Tey, a Senegalese modern fairy-tale which premiered at the Berlin Film Festival on Friday, depicts a young man who wakes up inexplicably knowing today is the last day of his life.

Tey, meaning "today" in the Wolof language, is one of three films in the competition set in Africa, which festival director Dieter Kosslick (pictured) has described as "an almost forgotten continent in film".

Director Alain Gomis, the son of a French mother and Senegalese father, said Tey was about coming to terms with death in order to better appreciate the present, the today.

"In Europe, death doesn't exist, we don't confront it, instead we try to forget it even exists," he said.

"Through this film I confronted my own biggest fear, that of death, and now I have come to terms with it, it actually enriches every moment, every moment is magic," said the director.The main character Satche, played by US actor and musician Saul Stacey Williams, said: "For me it was very scary getting into the character for this film because it operates off the premise of living every day as if it is your last day," said Williams, who learnt Wolof and French on the set.

Gomis said the Berlin film festival would benefit from its focus this year on African films, which are too often ignored.

War Witch, a sub-Saharan African drama about a girl's abduction by a rebel army, and Tabu, a tale of love and crime set in Portugal and Mozambique, will premiere later in the week.

"Europe could enrich itself so much if it did not simply regard Africa with a sense of guilt or charity, but actually opened up to all this continent has to offer," he said.