SUBJECTS

Africa -- Civilization -- Drama, Family life -- Senegal -- Drama, Sembène, Ousmane, 1923-2007. Mandat -- Film and video adaptations, Senegal -- Social conditions -- 20th century -- Drama

Mandabi

(The Money Order)

BAMPFA Collection Print

featuring

Mamadou Guye, Ynousse N’Diaye, Issa Niang, Serigne N’Diayes,

Sembène’s second feature is a folk comedy set in contemporary Dakar. Ibrahima Dieng (Mamadou Guye) is a middle-aged Muslim man with two wives and seven children. One day he receives a money order from his nephew in Paris, with specific instructions for the division and use of the funds. However, news of the money order spreads quickly through the neighborhood, and soon Ibrahima’s home is filled with interested parties. Before he can collect the cash, Ibrahima is forced to wade through many layers of bureaucratic red tape. “Sembène’s approach is spare, laconic, slightly ironic, and never patronizing” (Roger Greenspun, New York Times). Mandabi is Sembène’s first film shot in Wolof, the mother tongue of the majority of Senegalese. This choice encouraged other African filmmakers to work with local vernacular languages as distinct from French or other languages brought to Africa by former colonial rulers. The film received the International Critics’ Prize at the Venice Film Festival.

Susan Oxtoby
FILM DETAILS 
Screenwriter
  • Ousmane Sembène
Cinematographer
  • Paul Soulignac
Language
  • French
  • Wolof
  • with English subtitles
Print Info
  • Color
  • 35mm
  • 90 mins
Source
  • BAMPFA
Additional Info
  • In memory of Albert Johnson
CINEFILES

CineFiles is an online database of BAMPFA's extensive collection of documentation covering world cinema, past and present.

View Mandabi documents  

Ousmane Sembène: Pioneer of African cinema (program note), Cinematheque Ontario/a division of Toronto International Film Festival Group, Susan Oxtoby, 2002

Ousmane Sembene -- The father (program note), Harvard Film Archive, 2001

Mandabi (distributor materials), New Yorker Films, 1995

Mandabi (program note), The Museum of Modern Art, New York, Laurence Kardish, 1978

The money order (review), Other Cinema, The, 1975

Mandabi: Confronting Africa (book excerpt), Grove Press International Film Festival, Julius Lester, 1973

Ousmane Sembene -- Mandabi (article), Faux Raccord, Julius Lester, 1970

Mandabi (program note), New York Film Festival, 1969

The money order (program note), San Francisco International Film Festival, 1969

Curriculum packet -- Instructions for teaching: Mandabi (study guide), Oakland Unified School District

Displaying 10 of 18 publicly available documents.


View all Mandabi documentation on CineFiles.