A rich businessman in Senegal is cursed with crippling erectile dysfunction upon the day of his marriage to his third wife; the only cure is brutal public humiliation.
Direction
Sembène's surgical precision in dismantling male ego.
Writing
Wolof dialogue that bites sharper than any sermon.
Acting
Thierno Leye's magnificent physical comedy of humiliation.
Director
Ousmane Sembène
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Sembène adapted this from his own novel after becoming Senegal's most famous novelist — he literally learned filmmaking to reach illiterate audiences colonial education excluded.
The 'xala' curse itself targets the intersection of Islamic polygamy and French capitalist corruption — Hadji's impotence is both literal and symbolic of neocolonial economic failure.
SN
