Soleil O

Med Hondo's 1970 film follows a migrant who comes from West Africa to Paris seeking work and cultural life, and meets hostility. The man is educated, his French is perfect, and his presence still provokes fear and resentment. The film tells this not as straight drama but with everything available: animation, documentary, dream sequences, musical numbers, folklore, slapstick and direct agitprop. Hondo ties the formal freedom of the French New Wave to a critique of colonialism, and the result is a landmark of political cinema. It shared the Golden Leopard at Locarno. Out of circulation for many years, the film was restored by Cineteca di Bologna with support from The Film Foundation's World Cinema Project, as part of the African Film Heritage Project. Who it's for: viewers interested in African cinema, the Third Cinema tradition and anti-colonial political film. Who it's not for: anyone wanting narrative consistency, or uncomfortable with the language of direct agitprop.