Guelwaar

Critics Consensus

No consensus yet.

83%

Audience Score

User Ratings: 82

Super Reviewer

Rate this movie

Oof, that was Rotten.

Meh, it passed the time.

It’s good – I’d recommend it.

Awesome!

So Fresh: Absolute Must See!

What did you think of the movie? (optional)
You're almost there! Just confirm how you got your ticket.
Super Reviewer
Step 2 of 2

How did you buy your ticket?

Let's get your review verified.
Fandango

AMCTheatres.com or AMC AppNew

Enter your Ticket Confirmation# located in your email.More Info

Cinemark Coming Soon

We won’t be able to verify your ticket today, but it’s great to know for the future.

Regal Coming Soon

We won’t be able to verify your ticket today, but it’s great to know for the future.

Theater box office or somewhere else
By opting to have your ticket verified for this movie, you are allowing us to check the email address associated with your Rotten Tomatoes account against an email address associated with a Fandango ticket purchase for the same movie.
You're almost there! Just confirm how you got your ticket.
Super Reviewer

Rate this movie

Oof, that was Rotten.

Meh, it passed the time.

It’s good – I’d recommend it.

Awesome!

So Fresh: Absolute Must See!

What did you think of the movie? (optional)
How did you buy your ticket?
- Fandango
- AMCTheatres.com or AMC AppNew
  
  Enter your Ticket Confirmation# located in your email.More Info
- Cinemark Coming Soon
  
  We won’t be able to verify your ticket today, but it’s great to know for the future.
- Regal Coming Soon
  
  We won’t be able to verify your ticket today, but it’s great to know for the future.
- Theater box office or somewhere else
By opting to have your ticket verified for this movie, you are allowing us to check the email address associated with your Rotten Tomatoes account against an email address associated with a Fandango ticket purchase for the same movie.
You haven’t finished your review yet, want to submit as-is?

You can always edit your review after.
Are you sure?

Verified reviews are considered more trustworthy by fellow moviegoers.
Want to submit changes to your review before closing?

Guelwaar Photos

View All Photos (4)

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):

Jan 6, 1995 wide
Runtime:

1h 55m
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

Show all Cast & Crew

Critic Reviews for Guelwaar

All Critics (8) | Top Critics (6) | 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
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
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
Through Sembne's wry attention to detail, we observe a great many things about village life that would otherwise pass unnoticed.

May 24, 2003 | Rating: 3.5/5 | Full Review…

Marjorie Baumgarten
Austin Chronicle
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
The film is astonishingly beautiful.

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

Roger Ebert
Chicago Sun-Times
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
A funny, articulate and moving satire on the state of modern Africa.

May 24, 2003 | Full Review…

Film4 Staff
Film4

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