Mandabi
Comptoir Français du Film Production (CFFP) | Release Date: March 26, 1970 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
73
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 9 Critic Reviews
Positive:
8
Mixed:
1
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
80
The GuardianPeter Bradshaw
Mandabi features an excellent performance from Guèye, who is innocent and culpable all at once. This is gentle, walking-pace cinema that leads us by the hand from vignette to vignette, from scene to scene, presented to us with ingenuous simplicity and calm. Read full review
80
The Irish TimesTara Brady
Mandabi’s playful grammar and arresting camerawork are as exciting and politically charged as anything that emerged from the contemporaneous Nouvelle Vague. Read full review
80
The New York TimesRoger Greenspun
As a comedy dealing with life's miseries, it displays a controlled sophistication in the telling that gives it a feeling of almost classic directness and simplicity. Read full review
80
The New YorkerRichard Brody
Sembène looks ruefully yet tenderly at the ruses and wiles of the poor, whose desperate struggles—with the authorities and with one another—distract them from political revolt. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleSelome Hailu
Sembène achieves this balance of tone with a mix of absurd and biting dialogue and a modest mise en scène. Read full review
75
Slant MagazineKeith Uhlich
Through it all Sembène maintains a steady, humanist touch. Read full review
75
TV Guide MagazineStaff (Not Credited)
A keen satire, MANDABI is not only Sembene's first comedy and first film in color, but also his first in Wolof, the language spoken by most Senegalese people. Its critique of a postcolonial state is much more narrowly focused than those of his earlier short films, and, as the first Senegalese film to be distributed commercially in Senegal, it more than got its point across. Read full review
70
Chicago ReaderKat Sachs
This wryly mordant film achieved many firsts for the illustrious father of African cinema. Read full review
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