#1065: SEMBÈNE, Ousmane: Mandabi (1968)

SEMBÈNE, Ousmane (Senegal)
Mandabi [1968]
Spine #1065
Blu-ray


This second feature by Ousmane Sembène was the first movie ever made in the Wolof language — a major step toward the realization of the trailblazing Senegalese filmmaker's dream of creating a cinema by, about, and for Africans. After jobless Ibrahima Dieng receives a money order for 25,000 francs from a nephew who works in Paris, news of his windfall quickly spreads among his neighbors, who flock to him for loans even as he finds his attempts to cash the order stymied in a maze of bureaucracy, and new troubles rain down on his head. One of Sembène's most coruscatingly funny and indignant films, Mandabi — an adaptation of a novella by the director himself — is a bitterly ironic depiction of a society scarred by colonialism and plagued by corruption, greed, and poverty.

91 minutes
Black & White
Monaural
in French and Wolof
1:66:1 aspect ratio
Criterion Release 2021
Director/Writer


Ousmane Sembène was 45 when he wrote and directed Mandabi.

Other Sembène films in the Collection:

#852: Black Girl (1966)
#1217a: Emitaï (1971)
#1217b: Xala (1975)
#1217c: Ceddo (1977)

A

Film Rating (0-60):

60

The Extras

The Booklet

Twelve-page wraparound featuring an essay by critic and scholar Tiana Reid, excerpts from a 1969 interview with Sembène, and a new edition of Sembène‘s 1966 novella The Money Order, on which the film is based.

Commentary

None.

Introduction

By film scholar Aboubakar Sanogo.

Conversation

With author and screenwriter Boubacar Boris Diop and sociologist and feminist activist Maria Angélique Savané.

Praise Song

A program about director Sembène featuring outtakes from the 2015 documentary Sembène! of interviews with author and activist Angela Davis, musician Youssou N’Dour, filmmaker and scholar Manthia Diawara, and many others.

Short film

Tauw from 1970 by Sembène.

Extras Rating (0-40):

39

60 + 39 =

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