Soleil Ô

Know about the book -

Soleil Ô is written by Noah Tsika and published by British Film Institute. It's available with International Standard Book Number or ISBN identification 1839029595 (ISBN 10) and 9781839029592 (ISBN 13).

Med Hondo's feature film debut, Soleil Ô (1967), follows an unnamed immigrant from West Africa as he migrates to Paris in search of work and a better life. Instead, he struggles to find stable employment, encountering exploitation in menial jobs and isolation from French society. Following a non-linear narrative, 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 Ô within its historical and political contexts, as well as within Hondo's broader career and lifelong commitment to anticolonial principles. He considers the film's depiction of the modern exilic experience as a cinematic response to France's notorious Charles Pasqua Laws, which targeted illegal immigration and sought to appeal to nativist sentiment. He explores its lengthy five-year production, examining Hondo's guerilla filmmaking tactics wherein 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 Ô daringly extends the techniques of filmmakers such as Paulin Soumanou Vieyra and Ousmane Sembene into narrative, thematic, and political terrain not previously encountered in African cinemas.