JOM, The Story of a People
Directed by Ababacar Samb, Senegal, 1982. 80 minutes. In Wolof with English subtitles.

Source: New Yorker Films

Senegalese filmmaker Ababacar Samb says, "Jom is a Wolof word which has no equivalent in English or French. Jom means courage, dignity, respect... It is the origin of all virtues." To celebrate the concept, Samb uses the griot as the nexus of multiple stories and Senegal's collective memory. To inspire striking workers, the griot tells of a legendary prince, Dieri Dior Ndella, who sacrificed his life during colonialism, and Koura Thiaw, an entertainer who took up the cause of oppressed domestics in the 1940s, both becoming heroes to their people. Though this strangely lyrical film deals with a contemporary crisis, critic Roy Armes notes that "the film travels exuberantly through time to capture situations linked only by their common concern with the concepts of honor and dignity, the importance of keeping one's word and not being bought or corrupted."