- Title: SENEGAL: CINE-NOVELIST OUSMANE SEMBENE STARTS SHOOTING HIS NEW FILM 'LE MANDAT'
- Date: 10th March 1968
- Summary: FILM CREW WORKING; DIRECTOR; TECHNICIANS; DIRECTOR DIRECTS; CLAPPERBOARD; SCENE ENACTED; DIRECTOR PREPARES FOR ANOTHER TAKE; LINING-UP CAMERA; WOMAN - PAN TO CAMERAMAN; SCENE REPEATED WITH MORE DETAIL. Initials IF/VS/JF/FR Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 25th March 1968 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: DAKAR, SENEGAL
- Country: Senegal
- Reuters ID: LVA5SI7U35L2T0KIZYEJKI9DAX1J
- Story Text: THE SENEGALESE FILM-MAKER NOVELIST OUSMANE SEMBENE HAS BEGUN SHOOTING ON HIS LATEST FULL-LENGTH FILM 'LE MANDAT'. THE FILM TELLS THE STORY OF A SENEGALESE MOSLEM OF ABOUT FIFTY YEARS OF AGE WHO, WITH THE ARRIVAL OF A POSTAL ORDER FROM PARIS, SUDDENLY FINDS HIMSELF AMONG THE RICH.
THE ONLY TROUBLE IS, IBRAHIMA DIENG'S WEALTH IS MORE IMAGINARY THAN REAL. WITH THE POSTAL ORDER ARRIVE INSTRUCTIONS THAT MOST OF THE MONEY MUST BE GIVEN TO HIS SISTER AND HER SON, LEAVING IBRAHIMA DIENG AND HIS TWO WIVES A TINY SHARE OF THE FORTUNE.
BUT WHO KNOWS THIS EXCEPT IBRAHIMA? CERTAINLY NOT THE NEIGHBOURS WHO, ATTRACTED BY THE SMELL OF MONEY, HEAP UPON THE HUMBLE MASON THE HONOURS RESERVED FOR THE RICH. HE IS ALSO BESIEGED BY PARASITES, EAGER TO GET THEIR CLAWS ON HIS SUPPOSED FORTUNE. AND IBRAHIMA, SWEPT OFF HIS FEET BY HIS FAME, IS ONLY TOO PLEASED TO ENCOURAGE THE DECEPTION.
UNTIL THE UNHAPPY DAY WHEN HE FINDS HIMSELF MONEYLESS, AND DESPERATELY NEEDING TO CASH THE POSTAL ORDER. BUT HOW CAN HE DO IT? TO TURN IT INTO MONEY HE NEEDS AN IDENTITY CARD, AND TO GET THIS HE NEEDS A BIRTH CERTIFICATE, AND TO GET THIS --- THE PLOT THICKENS. BEFORE HIS PROBLEMS ARE SORTED OUT IBRAHIMA DIENG IS DESTINED TO BECOME HOPELESSLY ENTANGLED IN THE MAZE OF OFFICIALDOM.
SEMBENE OUSMANE, BORN IN 1923, IS ONE OF SENEGAL'S OLDEST ESTABLISHED FILM MAKERS. AS A NOVELIST HE HAS BEEN HONOURED ON MANY OCCASIONS, AND HIS FILMS, MADE LARGELY IN FRANCE, HAVE TAKEN PRIZES AT SEVERAL FILM FESTIVALS THROUGHOUT FRANCE AND AFRICA.
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