''Guelwaar'' is a 1993 French-Senegalese

drama Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has been ...

film written and directed by

Ousmane Sembène Ousmane Sembène (; 1 January 1923 or 8 January 1923 – 9 June 2007), often credited in the French style as Sembène Ousmane in articles and reference works, was a Senegalese film director, producer and writer. The ''Los Angeles Times'' consider ...

. The name is borrowed from the Serer pre-colonial dynasty of

Guelowar Guelowar, also spelled Gelwar, Guelwar, Guelware, Gueleware or Gueloware, was a maternal dynasty in the pre-colonial Serer kingdoms of Sine and Saloum (in the Senegambia, but mainly in the western area of present-day Senegal). They were from th ...

. The film won The President of the Italian Senate's Gold Medal at the

49th Venice International Film Festival The 49th annual Venice Film Festival, Venice International Film Festival was held on 1 to 12 September 1992. Jury The following people comprised the 1992 jury: *Dennis Hopper (head of jury) *Jirí Menzel (head of jury) *Gianni Amelio *Anne Broch ...

Plot

A Catholic and a Muslim die the same day. Relatives of the Muslim went to claim his body for burial, but due to an administrative error they got the body of a Catholic Christian man whose family had to settle for an empty casket. The burial of a Christian man, a political activist and dissident, by a Muslim family sets off a conflagration of satire and comedy in a deeply religious community. The film, said to be based on a true story, is a biting drama about North-South power relations and socio-economic development, inter-religious communal tensions,

African religion The traditional beliefs and practices of African people are highly diverse beliefs that include various ethnic religions.Encyclopedia of African Religion (Sage, 2009) Molefi Kete Asante Generally, these traditions are oral rather than scriptural ...

and African pride, with a nod to

Thomas Sankara Thomas Isidore Noël Sankara (; 21 December 1949 – 15 October 1987) was a Burkinabé military officer, Marxist–Leninist revolutionary, and Pan-Africanist, who served as President of Burkina Faso from his coup in 1983 to his deposition a ...

and

pan-Africanism Pan-Africanism is a worldwide movement that aims to encourage and strengthen bonds of solidarity between all Indigenous and diaspora peoples of African ancestry. Based on a common goal dating back to the Atlantic slave trade, the movement exte ...

. In a scene in the film, the lead actor who plays Guelwaar, Abou Camara, recites a verse about African pride and dignity from

Kocc Barma Fall Kocc Barma Fall or Kotch Barma Fall,Diagne, Léon Sobel« Le problème de la philosophie africaine » (2004) p. 10 (archived by French Wikipedia) more commonly known as Kocc Barma, born Birima Maxuréja Demba Xolé Faal (1586-1655) was a Cayoria ...

, the 17th-century Senegambian philosopher and

lamane Lamane or laman (also ''laam'' or ''lam'') means "master of the land" in the Mandingue, Wolof, and Serer languages. The name was also sometimes the title of chiefs or kings of the Serer people of the Senegambia region which includes modern day S ...

Cast

* Thierno Ndiaye "Doss" as Guelwaar * Marie Augustine Diatta *

Mame Ndoumbé Diop MAME (formerly an acronym of Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator) is a free and open-source emulator designed to recreate the hardware of arcade game systems in software on modern personal computers and other platforms. Its intention is to preser ...

as Nogoy Marie Thioune * Ndiawar Diop as Barthelemy *

Lamine Mane Lamine is a given name and a surname. Lamin is the local name for Al-Amin (a title given to the prophet Mohammed which means "the trustworthy"). Notable people with the name include: *Ould Lamine Abdallah (born 1929), French former long-distance r ...

as Dibocor

Release

The film was slated for release in Senegal alongside the 1993 elections, but was blocked from being shown as it dealt with themes critical to Senegal's governmental policy regarding foreign aid. Guelwaar was released theatrically in France by Les Films du Paradoxe in 1993. It received an American home video release with independent distributor

New Yorker Films New Yorker Films is an independent film distribution company founded by Daniel Talbot in 1965. It started as an extension of his Manhattan movie house, the New Yorker Theater, founded 1960, after a film's producer would not allow for a movie's sin ...

that same year, though it has been out of print since the company shut down in 2018.

External links

* * . Video duration 1h:29m:38s. Uploader Roomnart 2022.

References

1993 drama films 1993 films Films directed by Ousmane Sembène Films produced by Jacques Perrin Films about the Serer people French drama films 1990s French-language films 1990s French films {{1990s-French-film-stub

Plot

Cast

Release

See also

External links

References