Senegal director wants Karmen released

The new Karmen: Resourceful, irresistible and bi-sexual

A Senegalese film director is campaigning for copies of his film to be released, three months after they were impounded following protests by an Islamic sect.

Joseph Gaye Ramaka says he will take legal action against his critics, including the CICES cinema and a local radio station.

The man made a film which insulted 10 million Senegalese. Now he has his harvest

MP Abdoulaye Babou

Because all the copies of Karmen Gei are locked up in the Dakar cinema, Mr Ramaka has been unable to launch it in neighbouring countries or attend the Sundance film festival in the United States.

Karmen Gei, is a reworking of the classic opera Carmen, set in Dakar as a modern African soap opera.

Members of the powerful Mouride sect halted the screening of the film in protest at a scene in which Mouride chants are heard as a lesbian is buried.

Decision soon

The authorities tried to calm tempers by convening a special Commission of Cinematographic Control to examine Karmen's content.

Culture Minister Amadou Tidiane Wone says the Commission is getting down to business and will make a decision soon but Mr Ramaka is not satisfied.

The Mourides, based in Touba, exert considerable influence in Senegal

One of the director's targets is MP Abdoulaye Babou, who took a prominent role in the initial protests.

Mr Babou told the BBC that he was amused at the prospect of going to court, suggesting the legal campaign was simply a "publicity stunt from a man desperate to get his film out".

"You reap what you sow," he said. "The man made a film which insulted 10 million Senegalese. Now he has his harvest."

Local newspapers reported that dozens of members of the Mouride sect - some armed with clubs - gathered outside the CICES cinema in Dakar, threatening to set the building on fire.

'Magical chaos'

The film was well received when it was shown at the Cannes Film festival in June and was on release in Dakar for two months before being impounded.

Drawing strongly on the novel by Prosper Merimee and the opera by Georges Bizet, Mr Ramaka describes his version of Carmen as a tale of passion and freedom.

The BBC's Chris Simpson in Dakar says the main protagonist is plunged into the "magical, chaotic urban life of an African city", her adventures accompanied by a soundtrack of pulsating Senegalese music.

Mr Ramaka's Karmen is resourceful, irresistible and bi-sexual.

She seduces the governess of a prison on the Island of Goree, notorious as a 19th century slaving warehouse.

The governess later commits suicide and it is her burial which has stoked up the controversy.

Karmen is the first full-length feature by Mr Ramaka, described by our correspondent as one of the strongest champions of the Senegalese film industry.