UW Cinematheque – At the ChazenSOLEIL Ô | France, Mauritania | 1970 | DCP | 102 min. | French, Arabic with English subtitles Director: Med Hondo

Cast: Robert Liensol, Ambroise M’Bia, Bernard Fresson. A landmark of anti-colonial cinema, Soleil Ô flips the colonial gaze to expose the hypocrisies of postcolonial France through the eyes of a West African immigrant (Liensol) looking for work in Paris. Confronted with exclusion, exploitation, and institutional racism, our hero navigates a surreal, often absurdist landscape shaped by celebrated Mauritanian’ filmmaker Med Hondo (West Indies).