Pierre Henri Thioune (Thierno Ndiaye), AKA Guelwaar, is a political agitator whose criticism of Senegal’s reliance on foreign aid ruffles feathers. His suspicious death is followed by a mix-up when his corpse is mistaken for that of another man and accidentally interred in an Islamic cemetery. Guelwaar’s family, led by Europeanised son Barthelemy (Ndiawar Diop), enlists the local police to unearth and then rebury their paterfamilias on Catholic ground, but Muslim resistance sparks a religious conflict.

A tragicomic study of social atomisation and a hopeful vision of Pan-African solidarity and independence, Guelwaar is Sembène’s masterclass in interweaving complex storylines and blending disparate stylistic tones.

Screening as part of the Ousmane Sembène: The Father of African Cinema season.