Xala (1975)
Line up: Anarchist Film Festival

Xala

Ousmane Sembène | 1975 | 123' | Wolof, French, EN subtitles 

An adaptation of Ousmane Sembène’s own 1973 novel, Xala offers a hilarious, caustic satire of political corruption under an inept patriarchy. On the night of his wedding to a third bride, government official El Hadji Abdoukader Beye (Thierno Leye) is rendered impotent. After suspecting that one of his other wives has placed a curse (xala) on him, and after enlisting a local marabout for a cure, El Hadji must face the possibility that he deserves the affliction for his part in the embezzlement of public funds and for helping to keep Senegal in French hands. When even uglier reasons are revealed behind his loss of manhood, El Hadji endures a final ignominy from a group of disenfranchised citizens that he has conveniently overlooked. Adeptly combining elements from African folklore and popular cinema, Sembène uses Xala to indict the immoral hubris of entitled male authority figures and Senegalese sellouts.

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Anarchist Group Amsterdam (AGA), in collaboration with Filmhuis Cavia, welcomes you back to the Amsterdam Anarchist Film Festival. Seven long years after our 2019 edition, we return with an exciting programme of films meant to bring hope, anger, joy and a call to action against an ever more absurd and crumbling capitalist reality that drifts into the future on the waves of war, genocide, environmental destruction and the looming rise of techno-fascism.

From December 4th to 6th at Filmhuis Cavia, we seek to create an oasis of resistance with screenings, talks and discussions meant to build solidarity, community and nourishment for the soul and mind. Our selection of films will explore varied topics: from critiques of patriarchal norms and historical anarchist struggles to absurd loops of gender-bending fun and postcolonial malaise.


FULL PROGRAMME→