West Indies ou les Nègres marrons de la liberté

Introduced by Enoka Ayemba

Mauritanian-French director Med Hondo’s West Indies: The Fugitive Slaves of Liberty is a watershed event for African cinema—the continent’s first musical and a unique blend of historical epic, Broadway revue, Brechtian theater, and agitprop. Built entirely on an enormous mock slave ship soundstage, Hondo uses intricately choreographed dance numbers and reenactments to dissect over three centuries of imperialist oppression.

Traversing time and space from the Middle Passage to 20th-century Europe, the film examines the impact of French colonial policy on the enslaved, the colonized, and their descendants. Far from a simple extravaganza, West Indies stands as a radical call to arms and a spectacular cinematic reimagining of a people's history of resistance.