Secteur IX B

Betty (Betty Tchomanga) is a young anthropologist who is working on the Dakar-Djibouti mission, her research taking her from the IFAN Museum in Dakar to the Musée de l'Homme in Paris. Seeking to push the limits of her discipline, she reconstructs the medical prescription box given to the original expedition members and takes the drugs herself. In the grip of the narcotics' psychedelic side effects, Betty becomes haunted by a recently discovered family archive. Reflecting on identity, cultural appropriation, the transference of memory though objects, and subjectivity vs. objective classification, Sector IX B evokes the surrealist undertones of Leiris' groundbreaking book in its moody, anxiety-charged atmosphere, which is bolstered by an intense and startling soundtrack. (Toronto International Film Festival)