Past Film/Video | Classics

Soleil Ô

(O Sun, Med Hondo, 1970)

Info & Tickets

A close-up image of a Black man holding a cigarette in his hand and looking slightly off-camera.

Mar 07, 2024 7:00 PM

Film/Video Theater

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

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The first feature from one of the founding fathers of African cinema has it all: formal virtuosity, radical politics, and revolutionary struggle.

Med Hondo’s explosive debut feature is a bitterly funny commentary on the treatment of immigrants and France’s dire colonialist legacy. Based on Hondo’s own migrant experience, Soleil Ô follows an African man (a composite Pan-African character played by Robert Liensol) in France who quickly becomes disillusioned by the racism and employment discrimination that keep him from opportunities in a new land. With stylistic influence from the contemporary New Wave movement, this imaginative, criminally underseen work showcases Hondo’s formal cinematic talent, unprecedented vision, and dedication to global movements of emancipation. Soleil Ô was selected at Cannes Critics’ Week and won the Golden Leopard at the Locarno International Film Festival in 1970. In French with English subtitles. (102 mins., DCP)

See the complete lineup of Three Films by Med Hondo.

IMAGE CAPTION
Soleil Ô, courtesy of Janus Films.

"A furious cry of resistance against racist oppression and a revolutionary landmark of political cinema."

Aboubakar Sanogo, The Criterion Collection

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