Mandabi

Unemployed Ibrahima lives more poorly than well on the outskirts of Dakar. Then he receives a letter from his nephew, a street sweeper in Paris, who sends him a bank transfer of 25,000 francs. For Ibrahima, handling the transaction becomes a gauntlet run through the institutions ... How an individual gets caught up in the mills of bureaucracy: obviously inspired by Kafka's short stories, Sembène succeeds in creating a colourful yet pitch-black comedy in a society marked by corruption and colonialism. As the first feature-length film to be shot in the Senegalese main language Wolof, MANDABI, which received the Special Jury Prize at its premiere in Venice in 1968, is also an important milestone on the path to African cinema. (Florian Widegger)

Version: Wolof with German subtitles