A Diola village is forced to “volunteer” their young men for the French army, while women are asked to give up tonnes of rice in Sembene’s urgent, spiritually defiant WWII work of anti-colonial resistance.
Mambety’s iconic piece of African cinema showcases his talent as a rule-breaking filmmaker, marked by a transcultural soundtrack and brilliant use of associative montage, as a couple attempt to steal enough money to leave Senegal for France.
Some centuries-old Beninese treasures are returned by France, sparking debate over its neocolonial political posturing sublimating as cultural diplomacy as Diop’s quaint Berlinale Golden Bear-winning documentary highlights the dissonances inherent in this ‘homecoming’.
The first-ever film to be shot in an African language, Sembene’s landmark sophomore feature is a cultural experience to behold, and a gently comic satire about the bureaucratic hurdles a debt-ridden man has to undergo to cash in his money order.
Sembene the trailblazer led African cinema to international recognition with this landmark classic about the despair of a black Senegalese woman made to work for a white French family.
It does feel overreaching at times, but Mati Diop’s French-Senegalese first feature is a beguiling take on how tragedy can haunt the present.
Eternality Tan 