La Petite Vendeuse De Soleil (1999) (The Little Girl Who Sold The Sun)
Djibril Diop Mambéty
Wolof/French
The second part of an unfinished trilogy titled Tales of Ordinary People, Senegalese maverick Djibril Diop Mambety’s posthumously released The Little Girl Who Sold The Sun (1999) centers on a physically challenged girl who makes her living selling Le Soleil in the streets of Dakar. We witness her bravely fighting the everyday tyranny of cops and other street urchins, who try to elbow her out of business, and helping out her blind grandmother. The overwhelming optimism of the film, admittedly, is an attempt to balance the cynicism and anger of the directors’ previous feature, Hyenas (1992), which presented an Africa that had buckled to the pressures of global economic powers. Bathed in sunlight and shot almost entirely in open spaces, The Little Girl seems to be characterized by a pair of contradictory forces at its heart. On one hand, the film, on its face value, comes across as one of those million well-meaning, liberal, independent movies which dodge real issues in favour of readymade humanist themes and identity politics. On the other, it is clear that Mambety is attaching an allegorical weight to this simple tale, put into place by a fantastical political event – all of Africa leaving the Franc zone and taking up a sovereign currency – which reveals that Mambety’s fervent commitment to the “African cause” hasn’t lapsed into some kind of “everyman for himself” philosophy. Mambety’s recognition of the girl – as herself – and her condition prevents The Little Girl from becoming frigidly schematic or crumbing under its symbolic weight. When the girl’s friend carries her on his back, after her crutches have been stolen by the boy gang, you simultaneously sense an individual’s resilience to her immediate surroundings as well as a soaring political utopianism.
The Seventh Art 
February 20, 2012 at 2:01 am
I am (unfortunately) unfamilar with Mambety’s work, but am still impressed by his humanism and the prospect that there is a relatively major artist working in that corner of the world. Still I completely understand what you are saying too about the allegorical side that elevates it still further and in a different direction. Reminds one here of some middle-eastern cinema in tone and focus. Anyway, lovely capsule as always.
Correction: Mambety sadly passed away well before his time in 1998 of lung cancer. I see he was a noted composer, orator and poet as well.
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February 24, 2012 at 8:39 pm
Thank you, Sam. Yes, Mambety is pretty much my favorite African filmmaker. He deserves a major resurrection.
Cheers!
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