Title of film : Xala
Director Name : Ousmane Sembene
Cast & crew :
Producer : Filmi Domireve SNC
Editor : Florence Eymon
Cast :
Synopsis : An adaptation of Ousmane Sembenees own 1973 novel, Xala offers a hilarious, caustic satire of political corruption under an inept patriarchy. On the night of his wedding to a third bride, government official El Hadji Abdoukader Beye (Thierno Leye) is rendered impotent. After suspecting that one of his other wives has placed a curse (xala) on him, and after enlisting a local marabout for a cure, El Hadji must face the possibility that he deserves the infliction for his part in the embezzlement of public funds and for helping to keep Senegal in French hands. When even uglier reasons are revealed behind his loss of manhood, El Hadji endures a final ignominy from a group of disenfranchised citizens that he has conveniently overlooked. Adeptly combining elements from African folklore and popular cinema, Sembene uses Xala to indict the immoral hubris of entitled male authority figures and Senegalese sellouts.
Director Bio : Ousmane Sembene 1 January 1923 or 8 January 1923 – 9 June 2007), often credited in the French style as Sembene Ousmane which he seemed to favor as a way to underscore the "colonial imposition" of this naming ritual and subvert it, was a Senegalese film director, producer and writer. The Los Angeles Times considered him one of the greatest authors of Africa and he has often been called the "father of African film". Descended from a Serer family through his mother from the line of Matar Sene, Ousmane Sembene was particularly drawn to Serer religious festivals especially the Tuur festival.
Filmography :
