Emitaï (1971)

Regarded as the “father of African Cinema,” Ousmane Sembène’s Emitaï was banned upon its release. Set during the Second World War, Emitaï revisits a moment when French colonial authorities in Senegal forcibly recruited young Diola men and confiscated their rice supplies to sustain the war effort in Europe. While male elders turn to ritual and prayer, appealing to ancestral gods for intervention, the women of the village take a more defiant stance, refusing to surrender their harvest despite the threat of violent retaliation. Through this confrontation, Sembène exposes the oppression under colonial rule, while examining how colonial domination fractures social and spiritual life. He reveals the quiet yet resolute strength that sustains collective resistance.