Multimedia Collection
Three Tales from Senegal: Le Franc/ Picc Mi/ Fary l'Anesse
VHS
82 minutes
PN1997 .T491 1994
The three Senegalese shorts in this brief video anthology adapt the ancient African art of storytelling to a modern medium and a modern setting. In Le Franc, Djibril Diop Mambety (director of Hyenas and Touki Bouki) contributes a whimsical but sardonic parable, about the plight of everyday Africans buffeted by the changing winds of the international monetary system. The hero, Marigo, played by the rubber-legged Dieye Ma Dieye, is an African Charlie Chaplin, an Everyman whose dreams of being a muscician help him survive in a world of bureaucratic red-tape, urban decay and economic chaos.
Mansour Sora Wade's Picc Mi (Little Bird) is a touching fable revealing the exploitation of children in Africa's teeming cities. Two destitute boys escape the predatory demands of adults to spend one day of freedom together. Celebrated Senegalese singer Youssou N'Dour provides a running commentary on their fate with a folksong about a bird which flies free of a crocodile. Fary l'Anesse (Fary, the Donkey) is a timeless tale of a man led into folly by his pursuit of the "perfect" woman. When he thinks he has finally found her, she turns out to be a donkey. The moral: "The man who falls in love with beauty forgets that there are other qualities in women."
All in Wolof with English subtitles.
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