criterionforum.org

Mandabi



This second feature by Ousmane Sembène was the first movie ever made in the Wolof language—a major step toward the realization of the trailblazing Senegalese filmmaker’s dream of creating a cinema by, about, and for Africans. After jobless Ibrahima Dieng receives a money order for 25,000 francs from a nephew who works in Paris, news of his windfall quickly spreads among his neighbors, who flock to him for loans even as he finds his attempts to cash the order stymied in a maze of bureaucracy, and new troubles rain down on his head. One of Sembène’s most coruscatingly funny and indignant films, 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.

SPECIAL FEATURES

• New 4K restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
• Introduction by film scholar Aboubakar Sanogo
• Conversation from 2020 with author and screenwriter Boubacar Boris Diop and sociologist and feminist activist Marie Angélique Savané
• Praise Song, a new program about director Ousmane Sembène featuring outtakes from the 2015 documentary Sembène! of interviews with author and activist Angela Davis, musician
• Youssou N’Dour, filmmaker and scholar Manthia Diawara, and many others
• Tauw, a 1970 short film by Sembène
• New English subtitle translation by Sembène biographer Samba Gadjigo
  PLUS: An essay by critic and scholar Tiana Reid and excerpts from a 1969 interview with Sembène

New cover by Ify Chiejina

The description for this is weird. It’s not the biggest laugh riot in the world, but they’re making it out as if Sembene produced this dour movie. It has a lot of silly fun to it.

Is this licensed from Studio Canal?

According to the sell sheets, yes.

According to the press release from Janus, Criterion was behind the restoration for this.

I guess that tracks with the Sembène doc website that said Criterion was working on restoring the rest of Sembène's films. Funny that that article touting this reatoration credited to StudioCanal with no mention of Criterion's work.

Canal rarely discloses directly who performed the restorations they're using.

I just checked a Variety article from a couple months ago and it mentioned it was VDM that did the restoration for StudioCanal.

A big addition to the extras: the novella by Sembene the film is based on has been added, presumably making this a digipak as it's ~100 pages from what I can see.

Film Forum begins streaming the 4K restoration in its virtual cinema tomorrow.

Here's Jim Hoberman's write-up in the NY Times.

dwk wrote: Wed Jan 27, 2021 9:53 pm Beaver... Mandabi

Fixed

Wow. That looks fantastic

According to DVD Compare there exist two versions of the film, the international cut that Criterion has and a Senegalese one running 105 minutes. Wonder what is the fate of the latter nowadays?

L.A. wrote: Mon Feb 08, 2021 9:51 pm According to DVD Compare there exist two versions of the film, the international cut that Criterion has and a Senegalese one running 105 minutes. Wonder what is the fate of the latter nowadays?

I found a link to a virtual screening of the 4K restoration that is supposedly 105 minutes long. Film Forum was screening a 16mm print for the 105 minute version back in 2019.

yoloswegmaster wrote: Mon Feb 08, 2021 10:22 pm

L.A. wrote: Mon Feb 08, 2021 9:51 pm According to DVD Compare there exist two versions of the film, the international cut that Criterion has and a Senegalese one running 105 minutes. Wonder what is the fate of the latter nowadays?

I found a link to a virtual screening of the 4K restoration that is supposedly 105 minutes long. Film Forum was screening a 16mm print for the 105 minute version back in 2019.

Cool, thanks for those.