The film received the Jean Vigo prize in 1966. Its restored version can be rediscovered on French screens.
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Diouana, a young Senegalese nanny, sets sail for Antibes with her French bosses. She thinks she has the opportunity to discover France, but her destiny is that of a maid of all trades. Will she choose to suffer her fate? The first feature film by Senegalese filmmaker Ousmane Sembène, considered “the father of African cinema”, is released in French cinemas in a restored version on Wednesday October 9. With Thierno Ibrahima Dia, author of two books on Ousmane Sembène, this is the opportunity to find out more about this major work of African cinema.
1Sembène breaks with codes and reverses colonial prejudices
Firstly, from a formal point of view. “The black and white helps it have this sort of timelessness. It’s a very framed film, very composed, very square. Sembène never sought virtuosity through the camera”underlines Thierno Ibrahima Dia, historian and sociologist of cinema who is the author of two books on the filmmaker. “There is both directing work (how I move the characters and objects in space) and directing work (how I position the camera). At the time, these were professions different. There were assistant directors and assistant directors. Today, the two are intertwined. Until the 1970s, these two professions were very compartmentalized..” At the time, Ousmane Sembène wore both hats.
Furthermore, “it torpedoes all the bases of colonial cinema which establishes Africa as a land of relegation, a land of pain. However, for Diouana, but also Madame, the French boss, the continent is the land of enjoyment, of happiness. Conversely, Europe becomes an ossified land. There is a reversal of prejudices. “But it’s very discreet”notes Thierno Ibrahima Dia. Likewise, “the spaces are not affirmed in the same way. When we are in Senegal, the spaces are open whereas in France, they are closed, closed and constrained. The gaze always comes up against an obstacle. It takes the opposite view of everything the imagery produced by colonial cinemas, including Hollywood”.
Basically, The Black of…is a series of inversions. “It offers an alter-representation, in the same sense as alter-globalization, that is to say another representation which changes the axis of our gaze in relation to a negative representation because it is partial or partial.”
2Diouana Gomis, an artistic obsession
The Black of… is inspired by a true story. The fiction is the third work dedicated to the tragic story of its heroine, Diouana Gomis. “She is a Casamance native, Sembène was also born in Casamance. The filmmaker saw this article in Nice MorningI believe.” From this story, he first made a poem, then a short story in Voltaic before moving on to fiction. “He entertained the idea of making this film very early on so that it would not just be ‘a black woman who committed suicide in her white bosses’ bathtub‘. It gives him an identity and a voice, even if it is internal. It is the metaphor of Africa which is barely emerging from the colonial yoke. It’s a way to find your voice again. Even if it is internal, muffled, it remains a voice.
3A film that establishes Ousmane Sembène on the pan-African and international scene
The film, presented at Critics’ Week in 1966, “will earn him membership of the jury at the Cannes Film Festival the following year”, recalls Thierno Ibrahima Dia. “This film also had an impact on African cinemas. Tahar Cheriaa, the Tunisian who was launching the Carthage Cinematographic Days (JCC) and who discovered his film in Cannes, asked him to be his partner in this adventure. Which gave this pan-African dimension to the JCC that Tahar Cheriaa was looking for”says Thierno Ibrahima Dia.
4Mbissine Thérèse Diop, a muse for Sembène
The Senegalese actress, to whom the Franco-Senegalese director Maïmouna Doucouré entrusted a role in Cuteis part of the first generation of actresses in sub-Saharan Africa. She was a seamstress, before being spotted by Ousmane Sembène for his film. This is both of their first feature films. “She represents a muse for Ousmane Sembène. She is inseparable from Sembène’s cinema even if she is not in all of his films,” points out Thierno Ibrahima Dia.
5“La Noire de…” existed with a colored part
Awarded several times, notably the Jean Vigo prize in 1966, and the Tanit d’or at the JCC, the film has a long version, with a part in color. “He had to cut the color because he didn’t have all the necessary certifications at the time: he didn’t have a professional director’s card in France.”explains Thierno Ibrahim Dia. The commonly used film edit was shortened to sixty minutes.