Diya – Blood Money
Chad, France, Germany, Côte d’Ivoire, 2025, 96 min
After a deadly accident, the life of Dane, a driver for a humanitarian NGO in N'Djamena, is turned upside down. Director Achille Ronaimou reflects on the common practice of blood money.
Synopsis
Dane, a driver for a humanitarian NGO in N'Djamena, leads a peaceful life with his young wife Delphine, who is expecting a child, until the day he hits Younous, a 9-year-old boy on his way home from school. He takes the boy to hospital and when he comes back the next day to check on him, he is told that the child is dead.
Younous' parents are demanding five million CFA francs for killing their son. This sum represents the Dia or blood money, otherwise they will take the life of a family member.
Aktuell
In the program of the 32nd edition of the Africa Alive Festival:
Thursday, January 29, 2026, 8:15 p.m. at the DFF – Deutsches Filminstitut & Filmmuseum in Frankfurt am Main
Friday, January 30, 2026, 8:30 p.m. at the Filmforum Höchst in Frankfurt am Main
DIYA is a co-production between Chad, France, Germany (Filmgalerie 451), and Ivory Coast, supported on the German side by the Berlinale World Cinema Fund. The film premiered in February 2025 in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, at FESPACO 2025, Africa's largest and most important film festival. The film's lead actor was awarded Best Actor. (Meilleure interprétation masculine: Ferdinand Mbaïssané pour le rôle de Dane dans DIYA (95 min) d'Achille RONAIMOU (Chad).)
The North American premiere took take place in September 2025 at the 50th Toronto International Film Festival in the “Centerpiece” section.
DIYA was awarded the main prize at the International Competition of the Festival "Französische Filmtage Tübingen | Stuttgart" on November 5, 2025. The jury praised Achille Ronaimou as a strong new voice in Francophone cinema, who has created a visually impressive contribution with DIYA.
At the Augenblicke Afrika Festival in Hamburg, the audience voted for DIYA. Thank you for this wonderful award.
Awards and Festivals
- FESPACO Film Festival, Burkina Faso, 2025
- Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), 2025
- Französische Filmtage #42 Tübingen, Stuttgart, 2025
- Augen Blicke Afrika, 14. Afrikanisches Filmfestival Hamburg, 2025
- Afrikamera - Aktuelles Kino aus Afrika Berlin, 2025
- Africa Alive Festival, Frankfurt am Main, 2026
Additional Texts
Director’s Note
Dia, a practice that goes back to the time of the Old Testament, stems from the precept: "An eye for an eye for and a tooth for a tooth". It consists of compensating the victim's family for a crime, either by revenge or by agreement. It was intended to pacify society and to regulate, as a law, the violence in ancient societies. In Chad, where it is prevalent, it has become a source of social conflict, drama and business.
Dia is inspired by a true story, that of my cousin Ngaro: after having been duped and ruined in the name of the dia, he he took revenge by committing a heinous crime. He kept his crime of revenge a secret for a long time, but crushed by memory and remorse, he finally confided in me.
Credits
Directed and written by
Achille Ronaimou
With
Youssouf Djaoro, Ferdinand Mbaïssané, Solmem Marina Ndormadjingar, Haikal Zakaria, Moussa Zakaria
Cinematographer
Achille Ronaimou
Producer
Issa Serge Coelo, Valéry du Peloux
World Premiere
24.2.2025, FESPACO Film Festival, Burkina Faso
North Amerivan Premiere
September 2025, Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF)
Distribution Details
Screening Format DCP (2K, 25fps, 5.1)Aspect Ratio16:9LanguageFrench, ArabicSubtitles German, EnglishLicense AreaD, A, CH