La Petite Vendeuse du Soleil (The Little Girl Who Sold the Sun)
Director: Djibril Diop Mambéty
Senegal, 1999
45 minutes
Following Le Franc and conceived as the second installment of an unfinished trilogy of dramatic shorts entitled Tales of Little People, Mambéty works in a simpler style that reflects his move beyond documenting Africa’s victimization towards envisioning the continent’s recovery. Consequently, this film is a luminous portrait of a young, handicapped girl and her determination to be a street vendor of "Le Soleil," the national newspaper of Senegal, against the wishes of the other street boys. It is at once a tribute to the indomitable spirit of the street children of Dakar and to the individual’s capability for transforming her situation.