Joining the Q&A after this 35mm screening will be political historian Ama Biney, and Rob Lemkin, founder and director of Old Street Films who is currently in post with his new feature, Exterminate all the Brutes. This film is also being shown on December 10th. Full details here. You can find the details of the Med Hondo season here.
BFI Southbank introduction:
‘I wanted to illustrate authentic historical facts to show that the African continent was not easily colonised and had a history of resistance to colonialism. There were a number of African women involved in the fight against colonialism. Queen Sarraounia in Niger, Jinga in Angola, Ranavalona in Madagascar, Beatrice of the Congo, to name a few. We never speak of the role of African women in history, but they headed kingdoms and had an important status in matriarchal societies.’ Med Hondo, 1997 interview with Francoise Pfaff. Shot in glorious widescreen with a vivid colour palette and featuring large-scale, exquisitely staged battle scenes, this adaptation of Abdoulaye Mamani’s eponymous novel is set in 1898 and details defiant Queen Sarraounia’s resistance to invading French colonial forces. So disrupted was the film’s initial distribution in France – allegedly a result of political interference – that figures such as Bertrand Tavernier, Constantin Costa-Gavras, Ousmane Sembène and Souleymane Cissé petitioned a protest.
Here (and above) is the trailer.
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