Ceddo (1977)

Director:

Ousmane Sembene

Writer:

Ousmane Sembene (writer)

Release Date:

12 April 1979 (Hungary)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

The Ceddo try to preserve their traditional African culture against the onslaught of Islam, Christianity...

Plot Keywords:

Princess | King | Islam | Slave Trade | Kidnapping

Awards:

1 win & 1 nomination

Cast

Tabata Ndiaye	...	Princess Dior
Moustapha Yade	...	Madir Fatim Fall
Ismaila Diagne	...	The Kidnapper
Matoura Dia	...	The King
Omar Gueye	...	Jaraaf (as Oumar Gueye)
Mamadou Dioumé	...	Prince Biram
Nar Modou	...	Saxewar
Ousmane Camara	...	Diogomay
Ousmane Sembene	...	A Ceddo renamed Ibrahima

Directed by
Ousmane Sembene

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Ousmane Sembene		writer

Original Music by
Manu Dibango

Cinematography by
Georges Caristan

Film Editing by
Florence Eymon

Production Companies

• Films Domireew
• Sembene

Distributors

• New Yorker Films (1978) (USA) (theatrical) (subtitled)

Also Known As:

Outsiders (literal English title)

Runtime:

120 min

Country:

Senegal

Language:

French | Wolof

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Company:

Films Domireew

Trivia:

Banned by the Senegalese government for several years, likely for the unflattering portrayal of Islam. The official reason given was that the title was incorrectly spelled in a European fashion.

Goofs:

Anachronisms: The action sets at the end of seventeenth century but the umbrella over the imam, when he is on the throne, is clearly contemporary.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in L'envers du décor (1980)

More important than when it was first made

Ok - Ceddo starts slow and I'm as impatient as the next guy - even if that was then, this is 25-yrs after. No matter.

In a second recent viewing, the RC Missionaries were just as fanatatical, greedy and stupid as I'd recalled. The Muslims were as fanatic, greedy and eager to turn a buck (dinar?) by selling off any Senegalese who disn't - WHAM! - adopt Islam. Buyers were slave-trading Portuguese RCs who hadn't been quite dumb enough to be slaughtered earlier in the flick by the invading Osama-style Muslims.

Henry Louis "Skip" Gates of Harvard may have missed "Ceddo" - but Skip appears to get the point. Maybe. My three kids - Herself and li'l Kobe and MJ - me harder sells. But they're at "that age." Fine: they think I'm at "that age," too. Again, no matter.

See it!