Emitaï

Ousmane Sembène works swiftly and directly, the rounding up of the Diola villagers for "l'armée noire" is setup and punchline in long shot—passersby on the trail are grabbed by minions in French uniform and taken into the tall grass, "you're all volunteers." It's the middle of World War II, the colonizer demands soldiers so villages are raided for able-bodied young men, the women toil while the elders ruminate on and on. Sacred rice triggers the clash between natives and white rulers, what do the gods make of it? Pontecorvo's Queimada is roughly concurrent while Ray in The Chess Players takes a philosophical outlook, Sembène keeps the conflict at a wry distance. Prayers and sacrifices for deities, Emitaï included ("god of sky and war"), reddish filters and jump-cuts lend their otherworldly presence to the dying chief. The tribal altar keeps a skull atop a trunk surrounded by tusks, the Europeans have their own idols to worship: A poster of Pétain is venerated, or at least until news of De Gaulle arrive and a new icon is erected. (The switch is far more baffling than divine rituals, "in what army does a two-star general outrank a seven-star marshal?") The dilation of the earlier films' compressed critique occasions a telling reunion of Black Girl actors, Mbissine Thérèse Diop amid the defiant prisoners and Robert Fontaine in pith helmet barking at the troops. The unfinished burial, sunlight as torture and darkness out of fusillades. "La cause africaine" is the dedicatee, nevertheless internal change is recommended if colonial rule is to be truly challenged. The way ahead is suggested with a tilt up the petrified baobab under which the men deliberate and complain, followed by a tilt down the luxuriant tree under which the women fiercely resist. With Andongo Diabon, Michel Renaudeau, Ousmane Camara, Ibou Camara, Alphonse Diatta, Pierre Blanchard, Cherif Tamba, Fode Cambay, Etienne Mané, and Dji Niassebaron.