The Wish To Be a Red Indian: Kafka and Cinema 2024 / Mandabi / France, Senegal 1968
Ibrahim Dieng, long-term unemployed, with two wives and seven children, receives a money order from his nephew in Paris to the amount of 25,000 francs, which he is to share with his relatives. In order to lay his hands on the generous sum, he has to work his way through the intricate maze that is Senegalese bureaucracy – on the face of it, an impossible mission. A mislaid identity card sees Ibrahim becoming a helpless participant in an absurd farce about bribery, fraud and official indifference, which adopts a searingly ironic tone to lay bare the social situation in 1960s Senegal. In this celebrated adaptation of his own novel, Sembène, the “father of African cinema”, harnesses the Kafkaesque spirit as he examines the theme of money and corruption in an African country divided between tradition and modernity.
Lorenzo Esposito
92 min / Color, DCP
Director Ousmane Sembène
/ Screenplay Ousmane Sembène
/ Dir. of Photography Paul Soulignac
/ Sound Henri Moline
/ Editor Gilbert Kikoïne, Max Saldinger
/ Producer Robert de Nesle
/ Production Filmi Domirev
/ Cast Makhouredia Gueye, Ynousse N'Diaye, Isseu Niang, Mustapha Ture, Farba Sarr, Serigne N'Diayes, Thérèse Bas
/ Sales Tamasa Distribution
Ousmane Sembène (1923, Ziguinchor – 2007, Dakar, Senegal). Selected filmography: Black Girl (La Noire de…, 1966), The Money Order (Mandabi, 1968), The Curse (Xala, 1975), The Camp at Thiaroye (Camp de Thiaroye, 1987, co-dir.), Moolaadé (2004).
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