Emitai

During the Second World War, the French imposed a heavy rice tax on the Diola people of Senegal. This film takes as its theme the resistance they encountered, a resistance based on the Diolas’ beliefs in the spiritual deities invoked to advise them. ‘Although they are mythological beings, just like the Greek gods, they occasionally materialise in human form and hold sung discussions with the population…I have never seen any of these spirits, but I respect them.’