Med Hondo’s debut feature, Soleil O (1970), follows an unnamed African immigrant as he travels to Paris in search of work and a better life. Instead, he faces unemployment, exploitation and a deep sense of isolation from French society. Told through a non-linear structure and blending surrealist and satirical elements, the film is a searing critique of racism and the broader legacies of colonialism. Noah Tsika’s study situates Soleil O within its historical and political contexts, as well as within Hondo’s broader career and lifelong commitment to anti-colonial principles. He considers the film’s depiction of the modern exilic experience as a cinematic response to anti-immigrant rhetoric and nativist sentiment in France. Tsika also traces the film’s lengthy five-year production, examining Hondo’s guerrilla film-making tactics through which he staged scripted scenes on the teeming streets of Paris and captured the immediate reactions of perplexed passers-by. In doing so, Tsika suggests that by using the devices of documentary to tell a fictional story, and the devices of fiction to document a precise, seismic moment in world history, Soleil O daringly extends the techniques of film-makers such as Paulin Soumanou Vieyra and Ousmane Sembene into narrative, thematic and political terrain not previously encountered in African cinemas.
