Afropéennes - une histoire de famille

Born in France to a French mother and an Ivorian father, Léa Sery carries within her a heritage that immersion in Western culture has buried over time. Yet it is there—a long-felt, hidden richness—that the tools of theater and fiction bring to light. The actress’s words, the sound of the marimba, and the dance language of her sister—who has joined her on stage—gradually unfold the dialogue between Koïsso and Léa, who live far apart. A dialogue through which the sisters discover the emancipatory power of art even as they are confronted with the experience of racism. A dialogue in which their father’s voice also rises, leading them to encounter their long-lost Ivorian grandmother. Just as the music draws equally from classical traditions and sub-Saharan Africa, the narrative is hybrid—not as a synthesis of two cultures, but, in the sense defined by the philosopher Homi Bhabha, as the ever-creative coexistence of differences.