The Culturist Film Club #3: Mandabi
The Culturist Film Club returns to Alliance Francaise in Dubai on January 17 with the restored version of Ousmane Sembène’s Mandabi.
This month marks Ousmane Sembène’s centennial of his birth (January 1, 1923, - June 9, 2007) and a timely occasion to show one of his films. Hope you will join to watch and discuss the film with me.
Synopsis and trailer added below.
Date and time: Tuesday, January 17 at 7.30pm.
Ticket: AED 35 (Free for members). Book online.
Location: Alliance Francaise, Dubai (location map)
Mandabi
Director: Ousmane Sembene
1968, 105 min, Comedy, Drama, Senegal/France, French and Wolof with English subtitles
Set in Dakar, Mandabi tells the story of Ibrahim (Makhouredia Gueye) and the transformative effect that a 25,000 franc money order from his nephew in Paris has on his fortunes. Word quickly travels about his new found wealth, while a thousand bureaucratic obstacles stand in the path between him and his money. Ibrahim, preening and scheming, laying bets he has no means to collect, is a superb character study. But Mandabi is also a sprightly but stiletto-sharp satire on post-independence African nations and the shadow cast by colonialism.
Shot primarily in Wolof, this second feature by Ousmane Sembène was the first ever made in an African language—a major step toward the realization of the trailblazing Senegalese filmmaker’s dream of creating a cinema by, about, and for the inhabitants of his home continent.
Winner of the Grand Jury prize at the Venice Film Festival, Sembène’s adaptation of his own novella set a new course for African cinema: radical, anti-colonial and proudly independent in its methods.
