Kino immer anders
Soleil Ô is a film which sits at the core of what this semester’s cycle intends to curate. Med Hondo creates a dramatized manifesto on the living conditions of African migrant workers in the France of the 1960s.A piece of docufiction, interwoven with interviews and theatrical performances, Soleil Ô follows Robert Liensol acting as a sort of guide, allowing the audience to look over his shoulders at the racist discrimination faced by these workers in Paris at the time. It is a thorough unveiling of the many modes of capitalist exploitation towards the end of French colonization, which has stayed relevant to this day. A must watch in any program centering labor.
Upon his arrival in Paris, Robert Liensol, as “The visitor”, roams the city looking for work, being rejected at every turn and thrown out of any courtyard before even having gotten the chance to speak. It quickly becomes apparent how deeply entrenched anti-migrant and anti-black racism is in this society. We follow his struggle to find safe shelter in a city which would erase his very existence if it could, his experiences with chauvinist French unions, and the fetishization he is subjected to in not-so-romantic connections. Despite its incredibly low budget production, Soleil Ô has you keeping your eyes glued to the screen as it reveals all that was wrong in 1960s France.
Nicolas Pommerell
