Sarraounia

The date is the second of January 1899. A colonial column sets out from the French Sudan. Captain Voulet and Captain Chanoine are at its head. Their orders are to advance against a sultan called Rabah. African mercenary troops march with them. The column burns everywhere it passes. Villages are destroyed and people are killed. The French authorities learn what is happening. They send orders, then they send a second force. The two captains kill the emissaries who reach them. The news reaches Sarraounia, queen of the Azna, as well. She knows the tactics of war and she leads her community’s traditional faith. She decides to resist. The encounter takes place at Lougou. The film is adapted from the novel by Abdoulaye Mamani. Aï Keïta and Jean-Roger Milo appear in the hundred and twenty minute film, a Burkinabé, French and Mauritanian co-production Med Hondo finished in 1986.