SINGAPORE PREMIERE

Director: Ousmane Sembène
Runtime: 101 mins
Country: France, Senegal
Language: Wolof, French with English subtitles
Rating: PG13

Awards

OCIC Award — Forum of New Film
BERLIN INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 1972

Synopsis

Regarded as the “father of African Cinema,” Ousmane Sembène’s Emitaï was banned upon its release. Set during the Second World War, Emitaï revisits a moment when French colonial authorities in Senegal forcibly recruited young Diola men and confiscated their rice supplies to sustain the war effort in Europe. While male elders turn to ritual and prayer, appealing to ancestral gods for intervention, the women of the village take a more defiant stance, refusing to surrender their harvest despite the threat of violent retaliation.

Through this confrontation, Sembène exposes the oppression under colonial rule, while examining how colonial domination fractures social and spiritual life. He reveals the quiet yet resolute strength that sustains collective resistance.

This screening is part of the programme Prasasti / Inscriptions: Unearthing Intertwined Legacies. For more screenings of this programme. Please click here. 

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