Oh, Sun
(Soleil Ô)

In an unidentified French colony in West Africa, much the same as any other, black men line up before a white priest to take part in the baptismal rite and “renaming”. The first step in a process that simultaneously uproots, acculturates and subjugates them. In France, the Blacks from the colonies, encouraged by propaganda, come to find a better life. What they find is unemployment, at best a handful of “dirty” jobs, unacceptable living conditions, stark racism and bureaucratic indifference. As a scathing attack against colonialism and its social, economic, cultural and anthropological after-effects, the film is remarkable for the complexity of its shocking exposure of racism and a brutal ironic accusation of the West’s capitalist values, the cornerstones of a system of slavery that persists in other equally alienating forms until today. JB