La Petite vendeuse de soleil

Mambéty described what would turn out to be his final film as “a hymn to the courage of street children,” but like all of his works, it is also a paean to Senegal, post-colonial Africa and visionaries such as the courageous protagonist. Undaunted by poverty, young Sili leaves her blind grandmother to forge a better existence for them both. As the only female newspaper seller on the street, she encounters plenty of obstacles, but her reaction is always to simply stand up for herself and others. As she struggles for equality and justice, Sili’s courage is depicted with an unsentimental mixture of joy and pain. The second, after Le Franc, in his unfinished Tales of Little People trilogy, this film mixes realism with allegory, taking a ‘small’ story and making it shine as powerfully as the sun.