In first movie ever made in the Wolof language—a major step toward the realization of Sembène’s dream of creating a cinema by, about, and for Africans—after Ibrahima receives 25,000 francs, news of his windfall quickly spreads among his neighbors, who flock to him for loans. MANDABI—an adaptation of a novella by the director himself—is a bitterly ironic depiction of a society scarred by colonialism and plagued by corruption, greed, and poverty.