France/1970—directed by Med Hondo | 102 minutes

A furious howl of resistance against racist oppression, the debut from Mauritanian director Med Hondo – one of the founding fathers of African cinema – is a bitterly funny, stylistically explosive attack on Western capitalism and the legacy of colonialism. Laced with deadly irony and righteous anger, Soleil Ô (Oh, Sun) follows a starry-eyed immigrant (Robert Liensol) as he leaves West Africa and journeys to Paris in search of a job and cultural enrichment—but soon discovers a hostile society in which his very presence elicits fear and resentment.

Drawing on the freewheeling style of experimental cinema of the 1960s, Hondo deploys a dizzying array of narrative and stylistic techniques—animation, docudrama, dream sequences, musical numbers, folklore, slapstick comedy, agitprop—to create a revolutionary landmark of political cinema and a shattering vision of awakening black consciousness.

The Detroit Film Theatre presents this series of films by African directors working in Africa and Europe during the 1960s and 1970s in conjunction with the DIA special exhibition James Barnor: Accra/London. 

Winner, Golden Leopard, 1970 Locarno International Film Festival. In French and Arabic with English subtitles.