EMITAI

During the Second World War, in the Casamance region, the colonial army wants to requisition a village's rice to send it to the troops. The majority of the men have been sent to fight on the Franco-German front. Only the women are left behind and they decide to hide their reserves of food, whilst the old men go to the sacred wood to interrogate the gods. The colonial army will end up by attacking the village. The episode ends in a terrible bloodbath.

"I wrote the screenplay three times. It was only in the last version that I opted for unity of the three elements: time, place and action. Shooting took about a year and in the end I had more than five hours of rushes" (S. Ousmane).

Director and screenplay: Ousmane Sembène.
Director of photography: Georges Caristan, Pap Sow.
Sound: El Hadji M'Bow.
Editor: Gilbert Kikoine.
Cast and characters: Robert Fontaine (il comandante), Michel Renaudeau (il luogotenente), Pierre Blanchard (il colonnello), Fodé Cambay (il caporale), Andoujo Diahou (il sergente).
Production company: Les Films Domirev, Smadja Myriam, Ministère de la Coopération Français.