As part of the film series African Legacy: Francophone Films 1955 to 2019, the National Gallery of Art and the Cultural Services of the French Embassy present a free screening of the film Le Franc & La petite vendeuse de soleil.
Both Le Franc and La petite vendeuse de soleil are modest stories of present-day urban Africans, part of Djibril Diop Mambéty’s series, Histoires de petites gens.
In Le Franc, down-on-his-luck musician Marigo buys a lottery ticket and glues it to his door, eager to show his annoying landlady that he might one day have some rent money. When he gets lucky and wins, Marigo has to detach his door and carry it miles across Dakarto claim the prize. As Mambéty’s final unfinished work (completed after his death by a group of friends, relatives, and collaborators with no funding), La petite vendeuse de soleil portrays the only young girl who dares to sell newspapers on the street, struggling to overcome hurdles in pursuit of a better life.
Le Franc and La petite vendeuse de soleil by Djibril Diop Mambéty
1999 | France | 45 & 46 min