Xala

El Hadji is a businessman who grew rich in Senegal after independence. He sits on the chamber of commerce, speaks French and drinks imported goods. He marries for the third time. On the wedding night he is impotent. This is called xala; it is believed to be a curse, and El Hadji goes in turn to clerics, sorcerers and charlatans to have it lifted. Meanwhile his position in business is coming apart. Ousmane Sembène wrote and directed it, from his own novel. The satire is aimed directly at the new ruling class. Sembène argues that independence changed who sat in the offices and not the mentality; in the opening scene African officials take the chairs, and immediately afterwards French advisers come in with briefcases. Language is at the centre. El Hadji speaks French, his daughter insists on Wolof, and that argument is the sharpest conflict in the film. The impotence is built as a metaphor and the film does not hide it: the postcolonial bourgeoisie consuming without producing. It was censored in Senegal and several scenes were cut. The closing scene is among the most cited endings in African cinema and is meant to be hard to watch. Who it is for: anyone interested in African cinema and postcolonial political satire. Who it is not for: the pace is slow, the acting is amateur in places, and the film has no sympathy for any of its characters.