A deviously humorous look at modern Senegalese sexual maneuverings-and the women who win them-Faat-Kine began Sembene's trilogy of contemporary Senegal, appropriately called “The Heroism of Everyday Life” (his newest work, Moolaadé, is the second in the series). An unmarried mother of two rather spoiled college students, the quick-witted, glamorous Kine owns a gas station in Dakar and an outsized personality that could fuel the entire country. Dodging her imposingly devout Muslim mother on the one hand and a string of unimpressive male suitors on the other, this thoroughly modern woman remains self-sufficient, finding companionship in her children and her fabulously blunt female friends (“the Sex and the City crowd has nothing on these ladies,” professed Time Out New York). Displaying the many vibrant fabrics of contemporary Dakar-social, political, cultural, religious-Faat-Kine is “a rich comedy of manners that gives a feeling of hope about Africa's future” (Jonathan Rosenbaum, Film Comment).