Med Hondo, whose West Indies: The Fugitive Slaves of Liberty was shown at PFA in 1985, again mixes spectacle and music in Sarraounia, a tale of an African warrior-sorceress queen and her victory over a French colonial expedition. In the film's beautiful opening sequence, the child Sarraounia is initiated into the dual arts of swordsmanship and sorcery; soon she will use both in repelling an invasion by a neighboring tribe. By the late nineteenth century, Sarraounia has become Queen of the Aznas, both feared and revered, a woman of untamed independence in a male dominated culture. When a colonial expedition is sent to repel the forces of a black sultan, the result is an orgy of rape and murder, led by two rapacious French army officers and fed by black mercenaires. Hondo links the Frenchmen's insufferable superiority to their bestiality in depicting the obsession that carries them deeper and deeper into Africa. What are they after? That damnable female, the legendary Sarraounia, and the fortress city she protects. Sarraounia must go beyond her own powers, demanding that tribal differences be put aside, to defeat the colonial enemy. A marvelous score by Pierre Akendengue is a vital part of Hondo's second "revolutionary musical."