88
A cutting morality tale that blames Senegal's sociopolitical downfall both on Euro-centricity and African auto-destruction.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
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
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.
90
New York Times by Richard Eder
It is part fable and part satire, but it is much more.
75
Chicago Sun-Times by Roger Ebert
It's very much worth seeing.