TITLE...........: Xala (1975) STARS...........: Thierno Leye, Myriam Niang, Seune Samb, Fatim Diagne DIRECTOR........: Ousmane Sembène WRITERS.........: Ousmane Sembène GENRE...........: Comedy METACRITIC......: 80 TOMATOMETER.....: 91/63 IMDB SCORE......: 6.7 IMDB LINK.......: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0073915 RUNTIME.........: 2h 03mn SIZE............: 8.86 GB VIDEO CODEC.....: HEVC (Main10@L4) BITRATE.........: 10000 Kbps (2-pass) RESOLUTION......: 1800x1080 ASPECT RATIO....: 1.66:1 FRAMERATE.......: 23.976 fps AUDIO...........: Wolof/French FLAC 1.0 SUBTITLES.......: ENG SOURCE..........: Criterion Blu-ray ENCODE DATE.....: 2025-12-25 An adaptation of Ousmane Sembène’s own 1973 novel, Xala is a hilarious, caustic satire of political corruption under an inept patriarchy. On the night of his wedding to his third bride, government official El Hadji (Thierno Leye) is rendered impotent and begins to suspect that one of his other wives has placed a curse on him. After seeking a cure from a local marabout, El Hadji must face the possibility that he deserves the infliction for his part in embezzling public funds and for helping to keep Senegal under French control. Adeptly combining elements of African folklore and popular cinema, Sembène indicts the hubris, entitlement, and opportunism of male authority figures