DIRECTOR/PRODUCER/SCREENPLAY: Ousmane Sembène
PRODUCTION CO: Filmi Domireve
PHOTOGRAPHY: Paul Soulignac
EDITORS: Gilou Kikoïne, Max Saldinger
WITH:  Makhouredia Gueye (Ibrahim Dieng), Ynousse N'Diaye (Méty the First Wife), Isseu Niang (Aram the Second Wife), Mustapha Ture (M'barka the Shopkeeper), Farba Sarr (Mbaye Sarr the Business Agent), Serigne N'Diayes (Imam), Thérèse Bas (Dieng's Sister), Mouss Diouf (Abdu the Nephew), Christoph Colomb (Water Peddler)

FESTIVALS: Venice

REVIEWS

“In Mandabi, from 1968, the Senegalese director Ousmane Sembène ranged widely through private and public settings in the capital city of Dakar to satirize corruption born of misrule.

The film is centered on the sixtysomething Ibrahima, the long-unemployed husband of two wives and the father of seven children, who receives a money order from a nephew in Paris. He’s supposed to cash it for the young man’s mother but, lacking the necessary documents, must endure a bureaucratic odyssey of bribery and favoritism to fulfill his duty.

Meanwhile, Ibrahima and his wives, who can barely feed their family, rely on the money order to get credit from local merchants as neighbors besiege them for loans and alms, and shady businessmen vie for the deed to their home. Unredressed inequality is reflected in cultural conflict between the Francophone élite, in Euro-style suits, and the Wolof-speaking masses.

Sembène looks ruefully yet tenderly at the ruses and wiles of the poor, whose desperate struggles – with the authorities and with one another – distract them from political revolt.”

— Richard Brody, New Yorker

“My relationship with African cinema began with Mandabi.” – Martin Scorsese

FILM SOCIETY SCREENINGS

Wellington     
Monday, 27 March, 6.15pm

Tauranga  
Tuesday, 04 April, 6.00pm

Bigger Picture Ōamaru     
Thursday, 27 April, 7.00pm

Dunedin     
Wednesday, 03 May, 7.30pm

​Canterbury
Monday, 22 May, 7.00pm

​Hamilton     
Monday, 26 June, 6.30pm

Auckland     
Monday, 03 July, 6:15pm

Nelson     
Tuesday, 11 July, 6.00pm

​Palmerston North     
Wednesday, 26 July, 6.00pm

Queenstown     
Tuesday, 22 August, 8.15pm

Whanganui     
Monday, 11 September, 7.00pm

AFRICAN CINEMA >>
African Cinema is presented in
​co-operation with the Institut Français and the Embassy of France