{"product_id":"three-revolutionary-films-by-ousmane-sembene-blu-ray","title":"THREE REVOLUTIONARY FILMS BY OUSMANE SEMBéNE BLU-RAY","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\"\u003eHaving blazed a trail for African filmmakers to tell their own stories on-screen, Senegalese auteur Ousmane Sembène took his career-long project—to unlock cinema’s potential as a vehicle for social change—in increasingly urgent and provocative directions in the 1970s. Searing critiques of colonialism, political corruption, patriarchal arrogance, and religious indoctrination, his three features from this decade—the radical call to resistance Emitaï, the wickedly subversive satire Xala, and the controversial historical epic Ceddo—confirmed his standing as a fearless truth-teller for whom the camera was the ultimate weapon in the fight against oppression in all its forms.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003eEmitaï (\u003c\/span\u003e1971)\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\"\u003eWith revolutionary outrage, Ousmane Sembène chronicles a period during World War II when French colonial forces in Senegal conscripted young men of the Diola people and attempted to seize rice stores for soldiers back in Europe. As the tribe’s patriarchal leaders pray and make sacrifices to their gods, the women in the community refuse to yield their harvests, incurring the French army’s wrath. With a deep understanding of the oppressive forces that have shaped Senegalese history, Emitaï explores the strains that colonialism places upon cultural traditions and, in the process, discovers a people’s hidden reserves of rebellion and dignity.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003eXala (\u003c\/span\u003e1975)\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\"\u003eAn adaptation of Ousmane Sembène’s own 1973 novel, Xala is a hilarious, caustic satire of political corruption under an inept patriarchy. On the night of his wedding to his third bride, government official El Hadji (Thierno Leye) is rendered impotent and begins to suspect that one of his other wives has placed a curse on him. After seeking a cure from a local marabout, El Hadji must face the possibility that he deserves the infliction for his part in embezzling public funds and for helping to keep Senegal under French control. Adeptly combining elements of African folklore and popular cinema, Sembène indicts the hubris, entitlement, and opportunism of male authority figures.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003eCeddo (\u003c\/span\u003e1977)\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\"\u003eIn precolonial Senegal, members of the Ceddo (or “outsiders”) kidnap Princess Dior Yacine (Tabata Ndiaye) after her father, the king, pledges loyalty to an ascendant Islamic faction that plans to convert the entire clan to its faith. Attempts to recapture her fail, provoking further division and eventual war between the animistic Ceddo and the fundamentalist Muslims, with Christian missionaries and slave traders from Europe also playing a role in the conflict. Banned in Senegal upon its release, Ceddo is an ambitious, multilayered epic that explores the combustible tensions among ancient tradition, religious colonization, political expediency, and individual freedom.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\"\u003eTHREE-DISC SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul class=\"a-unordered-list a-vertical\"\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-list-item\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\"\u003eNew 4K digital restorations of all three films, with uncompressed monaural soundtracks\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-list-item\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\"\u003eNew conversation between Mahen Bonetti, founder and executive director of the African Film Festival, and writer Amy Sall\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-list-item\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\"\u003eThe Making of “Ceddo,” a 1981 documentary by Paulin Soumanou Vieyra\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-list-item\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\"\u003eNew English subtitle translations\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-list-item\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\"\u003ePLUS: An essay by film scholar Yasmina Price\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-list-item\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\"\u003eNew cover by Ify Chiejina\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e","brand":"Criterion Collection","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46139740127406,"sku":"CC3552BDUK","price":51.95,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0583\/4614\/3918\/files\/THREEREVOLUTIONARYFILMSBYOUSMANESEMBeNEBLU-RAY.webp?v=1752591141","url":"https:\/\/limelightcollection.co.uk\/en-eu\/products\/three-revolutionary-films-by-ousmane-sembene-blu-ray","provider":"Limelight Collection","version":"1.0","type":"link"}