Past Film/Video | Classics

Sarraounia

(Med Hondo, 1986)

Info & Tickets

A Black woman (Sarraounia, the main character of the film) looks up towards the top left of the frame.

Mar 21, 2024 7:00 PM

Film/Video Theater

$7 members and adults 55 and over
$9 general public
$5 students

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Celebrating African resistance to European conquest, this historical drama captures the indomitable strength of a legendary queen.

Adapted from Nigerien author Abdoulaye Mamani’s book, Sarraounia is based on the life of the powerful Azna queen Sarraounia Mangou and her resistance to the French colonial invasion of West Africa. In 1899, European colonizers were intent on ransacking the African continent for land and resources. Facing this aggressive plundering and violence, many Africans developed powerful resistance movements. Sarraounia follows the legendary queen who successfully resisted the incursion of the infamous and bloodthirsty Voulet-Chanoine French military expedition.

Med Hondo’s epic was almost left unfinished due to censorship from the French Ministry of Culture. The work was completed in large part with the assistance of Thomas Sankara, then president of Burkina Faso, who allowed Hondo to shoot the film in the country and put actors, technicians, and the Burkinabe army at his disposal. In Dioula, Fula, and French with English subtitles. (120 mins., DCP)

See the complete lineup of Three Films by Med Hondo.

IMAGE CAPTION
Sarraouina, courtesy of Harvard Film Archive.

"Med Hondo [made] an epic of one page of the great encyclopedia of African resistance against colonialism."

Aboubakar Sanogo, Harvard Film Archive

About the filmmaker

Med Hondo was born in the Atar region of Mauritania in 1936 and emigrated to France in 1959, taking on an assortment of jobs to fund his drama studies. As an actor he appeared in several notable films, including Jean-Luc Godard’s Masculin Féminin (1966), but was most recognizable to French audiences as the French voiceover of Black actors in numerous dubbed American films. In 1970 his directorial debut, Soleil Ô, premiered at Cannes Critics’ Week. Throughout his decades-long career, Hondo exposed the difficulties faced by African migrants, celebrated leaders and revolutionaries of the African diaspora, and remained committed to the emancipation of oppressed peoples everywhere. All of Hondo’s films challenge the status quo, and the director remained an outspoken supporter of Black cinema throughout his life.

Tag(s)

Film/Video

Presented in conjunction with the exhibition Sarah Maldoror: Tricontinental Cinema.

FILM/VIDEO PROGRAMS MADE POSSIBLE BY
National Endowment for the Arts
Ohio Humanities

ADDITIONAL SUPPORT PROVIDED BY
Rohauer Collection Foundation

WEXNER CENTER PROGRAMS MADE POSSIBLE BY
Ohio Department of Development 
Greater Columbus Arts Council 
The Wexner Family
Institute of Museum and Library Services 
Ohio Arts Council, with support from the National Endowment for the Arts
CampusParc
Ohio State’s Global Arts + Humanities Discovery Theme
The Columbus Foundation
Nationwide Foundation
Vorys, Sater, Seymour, and Pease

ADDITIONAL SUPPORT PROVIDED BY
Mike and Paige Crane
Axium Packaging
Nancy Kramer
Ohio State Energy Partners
Ohio History Fund/Ohio History Connection
Larry and Donna James
David Crane and Elizabeth Dang
Bruce and Joy Soll
Rebecca Perry Damsen and Ben Towle
Jones Day
Alex and Renée Shumate