While on a surface level the film recounts an African possession ritual which critically burlesques colonialism, many viewers found it to have a colonialist perspective, exoticising “primitive” practices and reinforcing negative stereotypes. To understand the complex reactions to this work and its multiple significations in the realm of both anthropology and film studies, it is necessary to explore the spheres of ‘intertext’ surrounding the film.
The ‘intertexts’, which seem most pertinent in this instance include, not only the influences of French anthropology, specifically that of Rouch’s mentor Marcel Griaule, but also the social and artistic trends in France that nurtured both the scientific and aesthetic interests of Rouch. In addition, Rouch’s specific synthesis of previous documentary styles and techniques is crucial to understanding his pivotal role in the development of documentary aesthetics. Furthermore, as the film was made towards the end of the colonial era in Africa, an analyses of the film’s ideological threads and the various responses it engendered must also take into account its indebtedness to and effects on the synchronous debates around colonialism’s psychological and socioeconomic effects.