I Bring What I Love is a documentary about Senegalese singer Youssou N’dour. It follows the release and tour of his acclaimed album Egypt, which was a huge international success, but was hugely controversial upon its release in Senegal. In seeking to celebrate his strong Muslim faith, Youssou faced strong criticism at home for mixing religion together with pop music, to the extent that his records were withdrawn from sale.

The man himself comes across as somebody personally committed to a great number of causes, and the film sees him dealing with his position as somebody who is simultaneously national hero, international statesman, family man and musician.

The film premiered in the UK at Sensoria, Sheffield, where we spoke to its director Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi.

Article: This is a film that could have been a very general overview of a musician travelling the world, given the huge range of places and people involved, but actually brings out the depth of character behind the music.

I hope it’s a universal film. I think that it does have a rather universal audience and that the story is why I made the film. For me, as an American film maker, the point is that it changes how people see things. I think that films should have political agendas - every story has got a political idea behind it, and for me just telling this story as non-dogmatic, the experience and enjoyment of it will change how you look at it. 

What’s so interesting about what Youssou was doing within his own society is that he was doing it at once, flying around the world and showing a different side of his life. In his own society he ended up negotiating very real issues and challenges of what the idea of moderation and diversity is.

Did you originally come to it as a religious or political film?

I thought the story around what he was trying to do which, at the time - just shortly after 9/11, was something that was important and spoke to contemporary issues. I also thought that there’s so many very good but also really pessimistic stories coming out of Africa. I think that those things are real, and they’re important, but Africa also has a lot to bring to the table, and this is a very good example of how maybe if we looked at other parts of the world, then that can change and form how we see things.

For western audiences, do you think the category of ‘world music’ marginalises things in some way, particularly when it appears to mean that the musician has to be spokesman for a nation?

With the film aspect, all of the celebrity activism I think is important. People draw attention to issues and, sadly, people do pay attention to celebrities. There’s a great tradition of music that matters, be it Bob Marley, Bob Dylan… but in my personal opinion we’ve got really far away from it in our pop culture. When you understand what Youssou is in his own language, his own world, you understand that he still is one of those people to whom music matters. 

Film and music are very powerful means of communication and so I think that just allowing him to be in the frame, in a movie theatre or in front of American audiences or Arab audiences is… hopeful, because it shows you a different story.

When we often talk about ‘world music,’ which is how people might think of him, we perhaps don’t realise its origins and the importance it has in its own culture?

Youssou’s response to world music is: isn’t everything world music? Show me something now that isn’t. I think it is a category with limitations and I think that Youssou certainly defies that category. This idea of categories, nationality, boundaries, like the nationality of a production, has been something that we have encountered everywhere. I’m an American director, the film was filmed primarily in Africa and Europe. It was financed by Americans of every single religious background, 70% of whom had never heard of Youssou before. 

Last weekend someone said to me “he doesn’t look like a real Muslim” and I don’t really know what to say to that, but at the same time - thank you for coming and please tell other people to come and see it because that’s the point - it’s supposed to challenge our ideas and the stereotypes we see in the media. I like world music, but I think that everything is kind of world music.

It’s certainly not World Cinema though! Cannes would never accept it as world cinema, they’d say it’s an American Hollywood production, even though it’s not. At all. It’s funny, they say it’s not an African film either, whereas the African film festival wants it and calls it an African film.