Sembene behind and beyond the Iron Curtain

This article examines how the Senegalese filmmaker Ousmane Sembene represented his oeuvre and how his films were received on both sides of the Iron Curtain in the late 1960s and 1970s, focusing on the Soviet Union and the United States. Sembene’s resounding success in both worlds reflects not only his talent, but his skill for self-fashioning across ideological lines. American publics have celebrated Sembene as a postcolonial auteur. In the Soviet Union, Sembene mattered because of the collectivist aspects of his films—his political organizing, his collaborative filmmaking practice, and his understanding of film as a tool to educate the masses. The lesser-known socialist context complicates the canonical story of Sembene’s significance as an African auteur, extending his legacy and the worldwide impact of his films beyond political auteur cinema.