Language Wolof (15)

Djibril Diop Mambéty's first film is eloquent proof that artistry trumps mere money every time. This low-budget short film is homage to the spirit of silent movies and is set against the backdrop of a bustling Dakar in the late 1960s.

When his fellow Senegalese villagers and tribesmen sorely need funds to see them through a terrible drought, the young protagonist of this classic film is sent to find his brother in Paris. His mission is to find work in the French capital and send money back home so that the villagers can buy food.

Djibril Diop Mambety’s deeply ironic and biting commentary on the divided city that was Dakar in 1969: on the one hand, colonial, affluent and pompous, on the other, indigenous, poor but genuine.

Colobane has been bypassed by everything imaginable – the trains don’t even stop there anymore. But when the legendary Linguere Ramatou returns to the place she fled 30 years before, the train does come to a halt.

Senegalese filmmaker Ababacar Samb says, "Jom is a Wolof word which has no equivalent in English or French.

The first black Carmen since Dorothy Dandridge starred in Otto Preminger's Carmen Jones. This gorgeous, sexy, exotically conceived reinterpretation of Georges Bizet's classic opera is set in modern-day Dakar, on the coast of West Africa.

Kodou cannot stand the pain of her lips being tattooed and flees. The dishonour and derision of the community and her family drive her out of her mind.

The announcement by the commander of a provincial capital in Senegal, of the impending arrival of the inspector general for people's affairs, causes somewhat of a flurry in this small Senegalese town.

Marigo the musician dreams of his instrument – a congoma – which his landlady has impounded because of his chronic rent non-pay-ments. Getting hold of a lottery ticket, he decides to put it in a safe place while awaiting the drawing.

Karunga, a young doctor fresh from a European university, is posted to a village where lives Ouba, a traditional healer much esteemed by the people.

Sembene's second feature film unlocked for the first time the complex world of modern Africa. It is the story of a man who receives a money order and encounters an intimidating barrage of Third World bureaucracy when attempting to cash it.

A tragic tale about a husband and wife's trip from rural Senegal, to Dakar to take their sick two-year-old daughter to a hospital.