Guelwaar

Ousmane Sembene is the living granddaddy of African cinema, and one of the finest filmmakers anywhere. He's also virtually unknown to the general American movie-going public. Which is too bad, because Sembene has more hard truths to reveal about the human condition than any 20 Hollywood types combined. His newest movie, Guelwaar (The Noble One), is a sharp and biting reminder of the old master's gift for satire.

Guelwaar is the title given to Pierre Henri Thioune, the dead man whose missing body becomes the focal point for the movie's plot. The setting is modern Senegal, a predominately Muslim country, where Thioune was a prominent Catholic. When his body turns up missing at the morgue, the case takes on a suspect political tone. When it's discovered that the body has been accidentally buried in an Islamic cemetery, the whole matter becomes a major social crisis.

The misplaced body is an embarrassment, but it's only a symptom of the real problem, which is the contradictory condition of modern Senegalese society.

Thioune was viewed as a political dissident not only because of his religion, but also because of his family's strong leaning toward French culture. (His oldest son, for instance, is a French citizen.) Senegal, being an ex-French colony, doesn't take kindly to influences from the European power that once enslaved it. On the other hand, the official language of Senegal is French, and the Senegalese still cling to many of the bureaucratic structures of the old regime.

The question of cultural identity fuels the fires that simmer beneath Guelwaar's calm surfaces. Sembene's film is funny, but it takes bites that draw blood out of both sides of the conflict. Guelwaar's aim is especially deadly when it comes to women's status. As Sembene demonstrates, Senegalese women can't get a fair shake from either side.