ABSTRACT
Med Hondo is arguably the most 'lost' of the major African directors. For years, not one of his films was available in any format, either to buy or to rent. That astonishing situation has changed very slightly, with the appearance of Soleil O, the film to be analysed here, on YouTube, but the general 'lost'-ness continues. Before starting on Soleil O, however, Hondo wanted to make some short films to prove to himself that he was proficient as a filmmaker. The actual making of the film has something of the stuff of legend: an untrained, unfinanced, would-be director, working with untrained, unpaid individuals, filming whenever people could be got together (usually at weekends), using a mix of film stock (some purchased, some donated, some out of date). Ironically, in view of the subsequent 'lost' history of Hondo and his films, Soleil O began by being very well received, and it was entered in the critics' week at Cannes.
