El Hadji Abdoukader Beye, a Senegalese businessman and a muslim, takes on a third wife, thereby demonstrating his social and economic success. On the wedding night he discovers that he is incapable of consummating the marriage; he has become impotent. At the beginning, he suspects that one or both of his first two wives have put the spell on him, without realizing that he walks by the true guilty party every day (beggars and people he has stolen from). The film criticizes the African leaders’ attitude after Independence, underlining their greed and their inability to step away from foreign influences.
Tag: SENEGAL
The film, Emitai, is the story of the silent resistance among a Diola tribe in West Africa in early World War II. Desiring a strong army, the French tear through villages rallying up men to be transported to France while leaving the women behind to tend to children and the elderly. The tension between the army and villagers grow when the French demand access to their rice crop. The village resistance ends in violence and uproar because rice is not only essential but also sacred to the village.
During the French/Algerian war, a group of black soldiers fight on the side of France. But when hostilities cease, they are detained by their own government in the titular prison camp before being sent home. While incarcerated, they begin to wonder if their cause — actually their country’s cause — is truly worth it.