XALA Movie Review

The Curse
Impotence

Senegal's Ousmane Sembène is one of the world's great cinematic satirists, and he's at the height of his powers in this bitter and brilliantly witty tale of a self-satisfied, “Europeanized” black businessman (he washes his Mercedes with Evian) who is suddenly struck down by the dreaded xala curse, which causes those afflicted with it to become impotent. As he searches desperately—and in all the wrong places—for a cure, his refusal to recognize the genesis of his condition explodes into both a tragic portrait of cultural enslavement and a razor-sharp satire of man's endless capacity for self-delusion. Censored heavily in Sembène's native Senegal—its Pogo-like “we have met the enemy and he is us” message didn't sit well with authorities—Xala is nevertheless one of Sembène's most widely seen and thoroughly entertaining films. Be prepared, however—its last sequence is sobering and unsparing, a reminder that just under the inviting surface of all great satire swims a shark with very sharp teeth.

NEXT STOP … Mandabi, Mephisto, Ran

1975 123m/C Douta Seek, Makhouredia Gueye, Thierno Leye, Dieynaba Niang, Miriam Niang, Iliamane Sagna, Seune Samb, Abdoulaye Seek, Younouss Seye; D: Ousmane Sembene; W: Ousmane Sembene; C: Georges Caristan, Orlando L. Lopez, Seydina D. Saye, Farba Seek; M: Samba Diabara Samb. NYR