“Today we fight to uphold our dignity and leave a name!” After filming the Brechtian musical spectacle West Indies: The Fugitive Slaves of Liberty, Mauritanian French director Med Hondo shifted to a more realistic, epic style to adapt Abdoulaye Mamani’s Sarraounia, a historical novel about the Battle of Lougou that unflinchingly depicts the horrors of colonial occupation and conflict. At the center of the West African clash is the titular Azna queen (Aï Keïta), a revered leader who inspires her people to fight the French army when most of the surrounding tribes have made deals with the invaders or joined their forces. With an incisive eye toward the psychology of warfare, Hondo charts the brutal arrogance of French commanders Captain Paul Voulet (Jean-Roger Milo) and Lieutenant Julien Chanoine (Féodor Atkine) as well as the fierce determination of Sarraounia, ready to meet her adversaries on the battlefield in order to defend her tribe and its way of life.