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Soleil O
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Wikipedia article
'Soleil ' (; "Oh, Sun") is a 1970 French-Mauritanian drama film written and directed by Med Hondo.
Plot
The film 'Soleil ', shot over four years with a very low budget, tells the story of a black immigrant who makes his way to Paris in search of his Gaul ancestors. This filmic manifesto denounces discrimination: The immigrants desperately seek work and a place to live, but find themselves face to face with indifference, rejection, and humiliation, before heeding the final call for uprising.
The title refers to a West Indian song that tells of the pain of the black people from Dahomey (now Benin) who were taken to the Caribbean as slaves.
Cast
*Robert Liensol as Visitor
*Tho Lgitimus as Afro Girl
*Gabriel Glissand
*Bernard Fresson as Friend
*Yane Barry as White Girl
*Greg Germain
*Armand Meffre
*Med Hondo as the narrator
Reception
The film played during the International Critics' Week at the 1970 Cannes Film Festival where it received critical acclaim. It received a Golden Leopard award at the 1970 Locarno International Film Festival.
In his 'Family Guide to Movies on Video', Henry Herx wrote that the film's "use of ironic humor and lively music keeps the plight of the black emigrant worker from becoming totally depressing."
In 'The New Yorker', Richard Brody wrote that "Making friends among Frances white population, ['the main character'] finds their empathy condescending and oblivious, and his sense of isolation and persecution raises his identity crisis to a frenzied pitch. Hondo offers a stylistic collage to reflect the protagonists extremes of experience, from docudrama and musical numbers to slapstick absurdity, from dream sequences and bourgeois melodrama to political analyses."
Restoration
In 2017, 'Soleil ' was given a restoration by the Cineteca di Bologna with the supervision of Med Hondo. Funding came from the George Lucas Family Foundation and the World Cinema Project, as part of the latter's restoration initiative called the African Film Heritage Project.
See also
*List of Mauritanian films
References
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