''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 b ...
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.
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, the 17th-century
Senegambian philosopher and
lamane.
Cast
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Thierno Ndiaye "Doss" as Guelwaar
*
Marie Augustine Diatta
*
Mame Ndoumbé Diop as Nogoy Marie Thioune
*
Ndiawar Diop as Barthelemy
*
Lamine Mane 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 that same year, though it has been out of print since the company shut down in 2018.
See also
*
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 ...
(a
Serer maternal dynasty)
*
Cinema of Senegal
The cinema of Senegal is a relatively small film industry which experienced its prime from the 1960s through to the early 1980s, but has since declined to less than five feature films produced in the last ten years.
Cinematic history
Early films ...
External links
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* . 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