6/1/2017 Xala - Wikipedia

Xala
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Xala (pronounced [xala], Wolof for "temporary sexual

Xala
impotence"[1]) is a 1975 Senegalese film directed by
Ousmane Sembne. It is an adaptation of Sembne's 1973
novel of the same name. The film depicts El Hadji, a
businessman in Senegal, who is cursed with crippling erectile
dysfunction upon the day of his marriage to his third wife.
The film satirizes the corruption in African post-
independence governments; El Hadji's impotence
symbolizes the failure of such governments to be useful at
all.[2]

Contents
1 Plot
2 Characters
3 Release
4 Reception DVD Cover
4.1 Critical reception Directed by Ousmane Sembne
4.2 Criticism Filmi Domireve SNC
Produced by
5 Awards
6 See also Written by Ousmane Sembne
7 References Screenplay by Ousmane Sembne
8 External links Starring Thierno Leye,
Seune Samb,
Douta Seck,
Plot Younousse Sye,
Fatim Diagne,
Myriam Niang
El Hadji Abdoukader Beye, a Senegalese businessman,
Music by Samba Diabara Samb
takes on a third wife, thereby demonstrating his social and
economic success. On the wedding night he discovers that Cinematography Georges Caristan Orlando L.
he is incapable of consummating the marriage; he has Lpez Seydina D. Saye Farba
become impotent. At the beginning, he suspects that one or Seck
both of his first two wives have put the spell on him, without Edited by Florence Eymon
realizing that he walks by the true guilty party every day New Yorker Films (USA)
Distributed by
(beggars and people he stole from). The film criticizes the
African leaders' attitude after Independence, underlining Release date July 1975
their greed and their inability to step away from foreign (Moscow Film Festival)

influences.[3] Running time 123 minutes

Country Senegal
French
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Characters Language Wolof

El Hadji Abdoukader Beye, a Senegalese businessman

Rama, Beye's daughter with his first wife
Adja Awa Astou, Beye's first wife
Oumi Ndoye, the second wife
Ngon, the third wife
Modu, El Hadjis chauffeur
Srigne Mada, a marabout
The president of the chamber of commerce
Dupont-Durand, the presidents chaperone

Release
Reception
Critical reception

Criticism

Scholar Aaron Mushengyezi writes: "I posit that in Xala, he evokes two problematic binary oppositions: between
the corruption and decadence of foreign influence and the purity and morality of African tradition, the former
represented as 'corrupting' and the latter 'redemptive'; and between strong, revolutionary 'masculine' women and
villainous, weak, 'feminine' men." [4]

Another scholarly perspective is from Harriet D. Lyons: "I shall argue that in Sembene's work the "covertness" of
the folk material takes the form of suppression of detail combined with the retention of essential values. Sembene is
thereby able to use folk elements in such a way as to give the work political implications that go well beyond the
preservation and/or revival of a local tradition. One can, therefore, examine the folk elements of Xala without fear
of consigning yet another expression of African creativity to the museum of primitive art." [5]

Awards
The film was entered into the 9th Moscow International Film Festival.[6]

Festival Internacional de Cine de Karlovy Vary 1976

The film ranked #83 in Empire magazine's "The 100 Best Films Of World Cinema" in 2010.[7]

See also
Cinema of Senegal

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References
1. "Xala" (http://www.filmreference.com/Films-Wi-Z/Xala.html#b). filmreference.com. Retrieved 2012-08-11.
2. Malcolm, Derek (21 December 2000). "Ousmane Sembene: Xala" (http://film.guardian.co.uk/Century_Of_Films/St
ory/0,4135,414318,00.html). Century of Films. The Guardian. Retrieved 2012-07-11.
3. FCAT
4. Mushengyezi, Aaron (2004). "Reimaging Gender and African Tradition? Ousmane Sembne's Xala Revisited".
Africa Today. 51 (1): 4762. doi:10.1353/at.2004.0070 (https://doi.org/10.1353%2Fat.2004.0070).
5. Lyons, Harriet D. (1984). "The Uses of Ritual in Sembene's Xala". Canadian Journal of African Studies. 18 (2):
319328. doi:10.2307/484332 (https://doi.org/10.2307%2F484332).
6. "9th Moscow International Film Festival (1975)" (https://web.archive.org/web/20130116194905/http://www.mosc
owfilmfestival.ru/miff34/eng/archives/?year=1975). MIFF. Archived from the original (http://www.moscowfilmfe
stival.ru/miff34/eng/archives/?year=1975) on January 16, 2013. Retrieved 2013-01-06.
7. "The 100 Best Films Of World Cinema | 83. Xala" (http://www.empireonline.com/features/100-greatest-world-cine
ma-films/default.asp?film=83). Empire. Retrieved 2012-07-11.

African Film Festival of Cordoba-FCAT (http://www.fcat.es/FCAT/index.php?option=com_zoo&task=item

&item_id=481&Itemid=37) (license CC BY-SA)

External links
Xala (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0073915/) on Internet Movie Database
Xala (http://www.allmovie.com/movie/v126439) at AllMovie

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Xala&oldid=782682122"

Categories: 1975 films 1970s sex comedy films Senegalese films French-language films
Wolof-language films Films based on Senegalese novels Films directed by Ousmane Sembne
Films about the Serer people Films set in Senegal 1970s comedy films 1970s comedy film stubs

This page was last edited on 28 May 2017, at 14:14.

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