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Xala

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Senegal · 1975
2h 3m
Director Ousmane Sembène
Starring Thierno Leye, Myriam Niang, Seune Samb, Fatim Diagne
Genre Comedy

Amid celebrations of Senegal's independence, an official known as "El Hadji," takes advantage of white colonial money to marry his third wife. But on his wedding night, he discovers that he has been struck with a "xala," a curse of impotence. El Hadji goes to comic lengths to find the cause and remove the curse.

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What are critics saying?

88

Slant by Ed Gonzalez

A cutting morality tale that blames Senegal's sociopolitical downfall both on Euro-centricity and African auto-destruction.

50

Washington Post by Gary Arnold

The major problem with the film is that the exposition is not nearly as clever as the premise. After warming to the idea behind the movie, one tends to cool off as it trudges toward a resolution.

90

Time Out by Geoff Andrew

The jokes and details are delightful, yet there's real anger behind them, and it bursts spectacularly into view in the concluding frames.

90

The New Yorker by Richard Brody

Sembène depicts a corrupt system that replaced white dictators and profiteers with black ones; the symbolic ending, a glimmer of revolutionary hope, is as gratifying as it is implausible.

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