Sun of the soil is a 26-minute short documentary film directed by Joe Penney and written by Laden Osman. The documentary is about the story of a rich king that lived in the 14th century. AbdouOuologuem plays the key role in narrating the story of King Mansa Musa of the Mali Empire.
Historical events about the Kings and Queens are always well documented and this is how we come to know about what happened in the ancient world. But the case of King Mansa Musa seems unusual. Surprisingly, the lives of his family members are scripted in detail. The details about the popular king of the family seemed to be insufficient.
Intrigued by this strange act, the director and the crew decided to make a short documentary about the King and this is how Sun of the Soil documentary was born.
What is Sun of the Soil About?
AbdouOuologuemnarrates the life of King Mansa Musa. After a brief analysis of the King, he tells that Mansa Musa was one of the richest and the greatest kings of that time. Under his rule, he built mosques and made sure that literature flourished and the praises were documented. Undoubtedly, he was a great ruler and a man of wealth.
After a conversation with the Islamic researchers, he says that one negative shade to the King was that he exposed his wealth to the entire world and thereby dug a grave for his dynasty. However, our narrator doesn’t agree with this.
Even in the year 2016, people found lots of wealth under the ground and claim that it might belong to King Mansa Musa. However, there are no roots connecting them to the life of Mansa.
Was the History Erased?
It is a fact that some parts of history are always destroyed, torn apart, or re-written. Similarly, the experts believe that the facts about Mansa Musa have also been destroyed either purposefully or casually.
Whatever be the scenario, they believe that Mansa Musa took his empire to the next level during his reign. Towards the end of the documentary, the narrator feels that there is not enough information about a great King and the only solution to this would be to write and document the records properly.
Meet the Cast
The cast of this documentary film is minimal. On the crew, we have Director Joe Penney who cinematographed the life story of a King in the best way possible. We also have writer Laden Osman who was held responsible for the scripts. Last but not the least, we have narrator AbdouOuologuem who narrates the life story of the King, goes around the city to understand the culture, and also gives his perceptions about the richest King of the Mali empire.
Where to Watch Sun of the Soil?
This short documentary film is available to the audience exclusively only on the Netflix platform. After long research about the King, the documentary was shot in 2016 and it was available on Netflix. It is also notable that the documentary has received an average rating from the audience and the rating agencies as well.
Stream it or Skip it?
I do agree that this documentary short film is not standard Netflix content. However, it’s not useless content as well. So, Netflix can Stream it.
It is also important to know the history of our world as it has unimaginable truths hidden in it. Being a historical documentary, this can continue to stream on Netflix.
Conclusion
Documentaries are always important in learning about the country’s potential and past. One of the keys to learning from this would be to properly preserve the manuscripts so far discovered to tell future generations about their glorious past.
