Description
Med Hondo's debut feature, Soleil Ô (1970), follows an unnamed African immigrant as he travels to Paris in search of work and a better life. Instead, he faces unemployment, exploitation and a deep sense of isolation from French society. Told through a non-linear structure and blending surrealist and satirical elements, the film is a searing critique of racism and the broader legacies of colonialism.
Noah Tsika's study situates Soleil Ô within its historical and political contexts, as well as within Hondo's broader career and lifelong commitment to anti-colonial principles. He considers the film's depiction of the modern exilic experience as a cinematic response to anti-immigrant rhetoric and nativist sentiment in France. Tsika also traces the film's lengthy five-year production, examining Hondo's guerrilla film-making tactics through which he staged scripted scenes on the teeming streets of Paris and captured the immediate reactions of perplexed passers-by.
In doing so, Tsika suggests that by using the devices of documentary to tell a fictional story, and the devices of fiction to document a precise, seismic moment in world history, Soleil Ô daringly extends the techniques of film-makers such as Paulin Soumanou Vieyra and Ousmane Sembene into narrative, thematic and political terrain not previously encountered in African cinemas.
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Table of Contents
1. Migrations
2. Theorisations
3. Soleil Ô as Essay Film
4. Reverberations
5. Restorations
Notes
Credits
Product details
| Published | 06 Aug 2026 |
|---|---|
| Format | Ebook (Epub & Mobi) |
| Edition | 1st |
| Pages | 112 |
| ISBN | 9781839029608 |
| Imprint | British Film Institute |
| Illustrations | 60 bw illus |
| Series | BFI Film Classics |
| Publisher | Bloomsbury Publishing |
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