IMDb > Mandabi (1968)

Overview

User Rating:
7.5/10   139 votes
MOVIEmeter: ?
Up 59% in popularity this week. See why on IMDbPro.
Director:
Writer:
Ousmane Sembene (writer)
Contact:
View company contact information for Mandabi on IMDbPro.
Release Date:
26 March 1970 (USA) more
Genre:
Plot:
A money order from a relative in Paris throws the life of a Senegalese family man out of order. He deals with corruption... more | add synopsis
NewsDesk:
"Moolaadé," "Daisy Kenyon"
 (From IFC. 25 March 2008, 6:48 AM, PDT)

User Comments:
Modest Film of Post-Colonial Senegal more (3 total)

Cast

  (Credited cast)
Makhouredia Gueye ... Ibrahim Dieng
Ynousse N'Diaye ... 1st Wife
Isseu Niang ... 2nd Wife
Serigne N'Diayes ... Imam
Serigne Sow ... Maissa
Mustapha Ture ... Shop Keeper
Farba Sarr ... Businessman
Moudoun Faye ... Mailman
Mouss Diouf ... Nephew
Christoph Colomb ... Water Seller
Thérèse Bas ... Dieng's Sister
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Mamadou Cisoko
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Additional Details

Also Known As:
Le mandat (Senegal: French title)
The Money Order
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Runtime:
90 min | Senegal:105 min (Wolof version)
Country:
Language:
Color:
Color (Eastmancolor)
Sound Mix:

FAQ

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7 out of 8 people found the following comment useful.
Modest Film of Post-Colonial Senegal, 9 August 2005
Author: aliasanythingyouwant from United States

Ousmane Sembene's Mandabi traces the descent of a poor Senegalese Muslim who, upon trying to cash a money-order at his village post office, somehow finds himself pitted against overwhelming bureaucratic and societal forces. The protagonist, Ibrahim (Makhouredia Gueye, unassuming and comically dignified), is a lazy and vain but fundamentally decent man, an illiterate villager whose unexpected windfall becomes the catalyst of his downfall - the means by which this simple, more-or-less honest, foible-ridden individual comes face-to-face with the indifference, the corruption of the modern world. His story takes on the quality of a fable, a slight, at times comic one. Sembene, an observer of human nature, keeps his characters at arms-length, and by watching them carefully from this middle-distance is able to convey their basic equality as creatures trying to survive in a confusing, unfair world. It also happens that this mid-range staging is perfect for creating a deliberate, unobtrusive sense of comedy, of human folly gently revealed. The film is, at the same time, a window upon the culture of post-colonial Senegal, a world that seems poised uneasily between tradition (village life; Islam) and modernity (bureaucracy; crime; money-grubbing). There's no question that Sembene is on the side of the little people - he may chide Ibrahim for letting his wives run his life, for being irresponsible with money (he borrows on the money-order before it's cashed), but he also applauds him for his doggedness and faith, the things that poor people always have to lean on. A modest film but a wise one (despite a slightly forced denouement).

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