The Story Archive

Mandabi

Ousmane Sembène · 1968 CE · Film · West African · Contemporary

Ibrahima Dieng, unemployed with two wives and seven children, is handed a money order from a relative in Paris and spends the following days in queues, studios and offices, told at each one which further document he lacks. Neighbours who hear of the windfall arrive with claims before a franc is touched. Sembene shot it in Wolof, having concluded that a Senegalese novelist wrote for a readership that barely existed.

Open Mandabi in the archive — filters, lineage graph and full facet browsing.

Lineage

Attributes

Genre
SatireComedyPolitical
Theme
Class & InequalityWealth & GreedIndividual vs SocietyTradition
Archetype (Jung / Campbell)
EverymanTricksterInnocent
Plot structure
EpisodicThe QuestIronic Reversal
Symbol / motif
The LetterThe CityThe Garment
Conflict
vs Societyvs Person
Mode / tone
SatiricalComicRealist
Culture / tradition
West African

Closest analogues