Karmen Gei

Senegalese filmmaker Joseph Ga? Ramaka makes his feature debut with this sensuous reworking of Bizet's +Carmen. The film opens with Karmen (Deje?naba Diop Ga?) escaping from the all-female island penitentiary, where she leaves behind a bevy of admirers, including the female warden who is utterly transfixed by the woman. Once on the outside, she returns to her people and to her smuggling ring, which she administers with both with an iron will, and a seductive smile. She entices a strapping soldier named Lamine (Magaye Adama Niang) away from his faithful wife and forces him to do her dirty -- and occasionally violent -- work while keeping him a slave to his desires. Ramaka infuses the film with West African music and dance routines showing Karmen as she seduces, bullies and eventually laments. This film was screened at the 2001 Toronto Film Festival.