Xala

Sembene is at the height of his powers in this bitter and brilliantly witty tale of a self-satisfied, "Europeanized" black businessman (he washes his Mercedes with Evian) who is suddenly struck down by the dreaded 'xala' curse, which causes impotence. As he searches desperately---and in all the wrong places---for a cure, his refusal to recognize the genesis of his condition explodes into both a tragic portrait of cultural enslavement and a sharp satire of man's endless capacity for self-delusion. Despite being heavily censored in Senegal, it is nevertheless one of Sembene's most widely seen and thoroughly entertaining films. Be prepared: the last sequence is sobering and unsparing.