Guelwaar

Critics Consensus

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100%

TOMATOMETER

Total Count: 8

83%

Audience Score

User Ratings: 82
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Guelwaar Photos

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Movie Info

As funeral preparations begin for Pierre Henri "Guelwaar" Thioune (Thierno Ndiaye), rumor spreads that his death may have been an assassination in retaliation for his radical political beliefs and constant criticism of the current regime. When the heroic Guelwaar's cadaver is stolen, his Francophile son, Barthelemy (Ndiawar Diop), contacts the authorities. As Detective Gora (Omar Seck) begrudgingly investigates, he discovers that Guelwaar was a complicated man guilty of his own share of sins.
  • Genre:
    drama, comedy
  • Original Language:
    French (Canada)
  • Director:
    Ousmane Sembene
  • Producer:
    Ousmane Sembene, Jacques Perrin
  • Release Date (Theaters):
     wide
  • Runtime:
  • Production Co:
    Galatee Films, Channel IV, Westdeutscher Rundfunk, New Yorker Films, France 3 Cinéma, Doomireew

Cast & Crew

Omar Seck
Gora
Ndiawar Diop
Barthelemy
Mame Ndoumbe Diop
Nogoy Marie Thioune
Isseu Niang
Helene
Mustapha Diop
Myriam Niang
Helene
Thierno Ndiaye
Pierre Henri Thioune 'Guelwaar'
Ousmane Sembene
Director
Ousmane Sembene
Producer
Jacques Perrin
Producer
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Critic Reviews for Guelwaar

All Critics (8) | Top Critics (5) | Fresh (8)

  • Sembne, with a tense restraint, evokes a dependent country that maintains its dignity through nationalist pomp and local pride, and portrays one long-suffering family that bears Senegal's burdens in microcosm.

    April 1, 2013 | Full Review…

    Richard Brody

    New Yorker
    Top Critic

  • Alternately wise and very funny in its treatment of tribalism and in its grasp of neocolonial corruption.

    May 24, 2003 | Full Review…

    Jonathan Rosenbaum

    Chicago Reader
    Top Critic

  • Sembene is hardly a didactic director and in fact invests his characters with such complexities that they are sometimes compromised.

    May 24, 2003 | Full Review…

    Richard Harrington

    Washington Post
    Top Critic

  • A rich, vivid and universal portrait of a community that is revealed fully as it reacts to a crisis: a community that will be buried by the past if it cannot look to the future. There's a lesson here, and Mr. Sembene presents it with grace and ease.

    May 24, 2003 | Rating: 4.5/5

    Janet Maslin

    New York Times
    Top Critic

  • The film is astonishingly beautiful.

    May 24, 2003 | Rating: 4/4 | Full Review…

    Roger Ebert

    Chicago Sun-Times
    Top Critic

  • The renowned Senegalese filmmaker Ousmane Sembene reconfirms his stature both as a master storyteller and a distinctively humanitarian artist.

    October 22, 2007 | Rating: 3.5/4 | Full Review…
    TV Guide
View All Critic Reviews (8)

Audience Reviews for Guelwaar

  • Dec 11, 2007
    [font=Century Gothic]"Guelwaar" starts with Aloys(Mustapha Diop) informing his sister(Marie-Augustine Diatta) and mother(Mame Ndoumbe Diop) that his father, Pierre Henri Thioune(Thierno Ndiaye), a Catholic activist, aka Guelwaar, has died. His brother, Barthelemy(Ndiawar Diop), is taking care of the burial details which reach a snag when the body cannot be found at the morgue. He contacts Gora(Omar Seck), the local police chief, who tracks the body to the village of Baye Aly(Omar Gueye) where it was mistakenly buried in a Moslem cemetary.[/font] [font=Century Gothic][/font] [font=Century Gothic]With "Guelwaar," Ousmane Sembene aims to show the state of chaos that his home country of Senegal is in by dramatizing how a minor bureaucratic mistake can quickly get out of hand.(Not to mention how silly religion is.) But in the end, he does have a great deal of hope that the people will find pride in themselves and not demean themselves by begging.[/font] [font=Century Gothic][/font] [font=Century Gothic]And politicians being opportunistic bastards seem to be a universal phenomenon.[/font] [font=Century Gothic] [/font]
    Walter M Super Reviewer
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