Ceddo (1977) review

"Non-believing" villagers in Senegal (referred to as "pagans") are fed up with the oppressive atmosphere created by the King (Matoura Dia) and his insistence everyone convert to Islam, so they kidnap his daughter Princess Dior Yacine (Tabata Ndiaye), several men try to rescue her (and they fail), the King is killed and then the imam takes over.  As a Westerner I have no doubt I'm missing out on some cultural specifics - what's up with that staff, anyway? - but there's really no excuse for the movie to be this belabored: there's a tedious discussion that uses up a good deal of time at the beginning and then the "narrative" comes to a total halt for every single stiffly-acted philosophical "debate" ... except the conversations lack nuance (simply put: sometimes people don't want to be controlled by religion, and there's nothing wrong with that).  The unorthodox score sounds like it was lifted from a detective show on American television, and it's highly disconcerting to know there's always a nonverbal White Man at the ready to trade rifles for slaves.