Senegal / France,
1992, 115 min
Shown in 1993
CREDITS
- dir
-
Ousmane Sembène
- prod
-
Ousmane Sembène, Jacques Perrin
- cam
-
Dominique Gentil
- editor
-
Marie-Aimée Debril
- cast
-
Omar Seck, Ndiawar Diop, Mame Ndoumbé Diop, Isseu Niang
- source
-
New Yorker Films
-
COMMENTS
Ousmane Sembène appeared in person to receive the 1993 Akira Kurosawa Award.
OTHER
Like his 1979 film Ceddo, Ousmane Sembène's latest film focuses on the Christian/Muslim conflict. Guelwaar's family and friends gather on the morning of his funeral, when it is discovered that the body has disappeared from the morgue. Since Guelwaar—who was an active spokesman for an Africa independent of foreign aid—died a violent death, hypotheses abound. But then it is discovered that the corpse's disappearance was no more than a bureaucratic mistake and that this man of the Catholic faith was mistakenly buried in a Muslim cemetery. Sembène uses this clever plot device to carve a biting critique of African politics, democracy, dependence and religious adherence.
—Saul Steier
FACTOID #68
Stanley Mosk, who later became a California state Supreme Court Justice, served as the general chairman at the 1967 Festival.
