Cinema
Soleil Ô
Med Hondo · 1970
Synopsis
An African arrives in Paris, convinced he will find the country of “our ancestors the Gauls” that school taught him, and looks for work and a roof. He runs into refused jobs, flats not rented to Black people, the disinterest of the trade unions and the indifference of African dignitaries settled in France. The film, in black and white, mixes a report on the living conditions of migrants, strikes, songs, cartoons and satire: an African head of state on a visit, a mixed couple on the Champs-Élysées under the outraged gaze of passers-by.
Context
The screenplay dates from 1965, and the shooting lasted from 1967 to the last months of 1969, at weekends, with a volunteer crew and actors, on sixteen-millimetre film bought with actors' fees; the editing was done at night. The title comes from a West Indian song about the suffering of Black people taken from Dahomey to the Caribbean. Presented in May 1970 at the Critics' Week in Cannes, the film received the Golden Leopard at Locarno; it was released in France on 4 January 1973 and stayed for more than three months at the Quintette in Paris. Restored in 2017 by the Cineteca di Bologna, it returned to Cannes the same year.
Who it is for
A ninety-eight-minute film, in French; the editing moves without warning from reportage to song and satire.
Prizes and reception
The Sight and Sound critics' poll in 2022 placed it 243rd among the greatest films of all time.
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