Ceddo

An African kingdom. The king has converted to Islam and has an imam beside him; a Catholic missionary and a slave trader also circle the court. Part of the people, those called the ceddo, keep their old beliefs and refuse to convert. The king's daughter is taken. The man who takes her is a ceddo and does it as a bargain: he holds the princess and demands that the pressure from the throne on the people stop. Ousmane Sembène writes and directs. The narrative names no historical period; the place and time are deliberately left unclear because the film describes not an event but a process: how conversion, the slave trade and the disappearance of local belief ran together in West Africa. Sembène is one of the founding figures of African cinema, and criticising Islam, Christianity and colonialism in the same film is typical of his position. The film was banned in Senegal for years. The official reason was the spelling of the title; the government wanted the word written with one d and Sembène insisted on two. It is generally accepted that the real reason was the content. The manner of telling is close to theatre: long speeches, fixed frames, and argument conducted as an assembly. The music carries elements of African American jazz and blues, a choice that ties the narrative to the consequences of the slave trade. Who it is for: viewers who follow African cinema and narratives of political history. Who it is not for: the pace is very slow, it rests on talk, and some of the arguments stay closed without the context.