Ceddo (1977) by Ousmane Sembene

Just entered an African-movie mood.

Ceddo (1977) by the Senegalese director Ousmane Sembene tops the list.

The best and shortest description of the movie belongs to Mark Leeper: a very big film on a very small scale. Put differently: an Akira Kurasawa movie on the scale of a village. A micro-epic. 

The movie tells the story of an African tribe forced to covert to Islam. A small group of rebels - the Ceddo - refuses to follow the majority and decides to keep alive their traditions. 

It is not God that makes people human, says one of the rebels.

It is Him, argues the imam. And actually, if you don't recognize Allah you are dogs that should be killed.

But we have our own traditions and beliefs, continues the rebel.

It doesn't matter.

They should be killed, tells the imam to his followers. 

(a very personal and liberal narration of the movie). 

Don't forget the Catholics. They are watching on the margins, they are selling wine and guns to the natives. They are buying slaves and baptize them thereafter. 

In the end, some of them are killed. The king, because the law of Allah does not allow two different authorities (a religious and a secular one) to reign in the community. Catholics, because a village is too small to accommodate two Deities. The imam himself got killed. For the power of blood is stronger than the appeal of religious texts. 

Other people choose the exile. The movie has a sad end. 

Here a review from the New York Times.