A wonderful story about believing in one’s self, life lessons, and wisdom.
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La Noire de…, also known as Black Girl (The original French title is literally translated as The Black Girl of…) is a 1966 film directed by Ousmane Sembène. The film is often considered the first Sub-Saharan African film by an African filmmaker to receive international attention.
The film is based on Sembène’s own writing. Though he previously directed two shorts: Borom Sarret and Niaye, Black Girl was his first feature-length film. In Movies as Politics, Jonathan Rosenbaum makes a case for Senegal writer-director Ousmane Sembene’s La Noire de… as the symbolic genesis of sub-Saharan African filmmaking, at least to the extent that the authorship belonged to a born and bred African.
The film centers on Diouana (Mbissine Thérèse Diop), a young Senegalese woman who moves from Dakar, Senegal, to Antibes, France, to work for a rich French couple (Anne-Marie Jelinek and Robert Fontaine). In France, Diouana hopes to continue her former job as nanny, and looks forward to a cosmopolitan lifestyle. However, upon arrival in Antibes, the couple begins to treat Diouana more harshly and she is forced to work in the capacity of a servant. Diouana becomes increasingly aware of her constrained and alienated situation.
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“La Haine does not offer any solutions to social problems but clearly shows the anger and frustration of people who feel trapped by their circumstances. In its depiction of a society in free-fall, it also has immediacy. Three weeks after the film was released, riots broke out in the Brixton section of London, following the death of a young black man in police custody. Though it is a wake-up call for action on society’s growing gap between rich and poor, La Haine makes a powerful statement that violence does not solve anything and that hate begets hate. Someone should pass the word to a few of the world leaders.”
- Howard Schumann
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“Wow. =\ And that is all there is to say.” - Chara Isis
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“It made my daddy cry, so it must be a good movie!” - Chara Isis
(Original Bambara Version - With English Subtitles)
Ousmane Sembene, a writer, social activist, and film director from Senegal, tackles the controversial practice of female circumcision — a difficult and painful subject, but Sembene also expands the film’s vision to include the plight of modern Africa itself. In an African village this is the day when six 4-9-year-old girls are to be circumcised. All children know that the operation is horrible torture and sometimes lethal, and all adults know that some circumcised women can only give birth by Caesarean section. Two of the girls have drowned themselves in the well to escape the operation. The four other girls seek “magical protection” (moolaadé) by a woman (Colle) who seven years before refused to have her daughter circumcised. Moolaadé is indicated by a coloured rope. But no one would dare step over and fetch the children. Moolaadé can only be revoked by Colle herself. Her husband’s relatives persuade him to whip her in public into revoking. Opposite groups of women shout to her to revoke or to be steadfast, but no woman interferes. When Colle is at the wedge of fainting, the merchant takes action and stops the maltreatment. Therefore he is hunted out of the village and, when out of sight, murdered. By the time the issue of what will happen to the girls comes to a head, the viewer has become so involved in the life of this village that the outcome is fraught with tension. We get to witness how customs based on arbitray power hurt both victims and perpetrators. Moolaadé is provocative in the best sense, giving all sides their due before resolving things in a courageous display of solidarity.
Also check out Noire de…, La (Black Girl).
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Sankofa can mean either the word in the Akan language of Ghana that translates in English to “go back and take” (Sanko- go back, fa- take) or the Asante Adinkra symbol. A self-absorbed Black American fashion model on a photo shoot in Africa is spiritually transported back to a plantation in the West Indies where she experiences first-hand the physical and psychic horrors of chattel slavery, and eventually the redemptive power of community and rebellion as she becomes a member of a freedom-seeking Maroon colony.
Another film to check out is Goodbye Uncle Tom. Neither is for the squeamish. Check out these Viewer comments.
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