Le Franc
Synopsis
Marigo the musician dreams of his instrument which his landlady has impounded because of his chronic rent non-payments. Getting hold of a lottery ticket, he decides to put it in a safe place while awaiting the drawing : he glues it to the back of his door and covers it with the poster of his childhood hero. The night of the drawing, a fortune blinds Marigo. But the problem is that he has glued his winning ticket to his door Le franc is the first part of the series Histoires de petites gens (Tales of Little people).
Director
Born the son of a Muslim cleric in Colobane, near Dakar, Senegal, Djibril Diop Mambéty received no formal training in filmmaking. He experimented with theater, but in 1968, he was asked to leave an avant-garde theater group. Shortly thereafter, he made his first film short called Badou Boy (1970), which dealt with the life of a young renegade. By 1973, he directed his first feature, Touki Bouki (1973), about disaffected youth, and it became an instant classic. It would be nearly twenty years before he would create another film, Hyènes (1992), which is considered a sequel to « Touki Bouki » and a parable based on the classic play « The Visit » by Frederich Durrenmatt. Although his films were considered to be politically oriented, Mambéty rejected the realism preferred by most African filmmakers. His films were notable for their dream-like quality that left the themes of his films entirely to the interpretation of the viewer; this was, of course, the desired effect. In spite of the fact that Mambéty only completed a few short films and a meager two full-length features, the quality of his short body of work has rendered him legendary status among African filmmakers and, indeed, the international film community.
Demba B
Dieye Ma Dieye
Screenplay
Djibril Diop Mambety
Image
Stephan Oriach
Sound
Alioune MBow
Editing
Stephan Oriach
Music
Dieye Ma Dieye, Issa Cissokho, Aminta Fall, Moussa Ndiaye
production : Silvia Voser, Waka Films Scolopendra Productions (France) Maag Daan (Sénégal) vente à létranger : Brussels Ave distribution : Les Films du Paradoxe