Film of the Week by Guy Lodge

Swaggers with a keen awareness of street-level economy and survival, hard on the game and wryly empathetic toward the players.

The New Yorker by Richard Brody

Sembène looks ruefully yet tenderly at the ruses and wiles of the poor, whose desperate struggles-with the authorities and with one another-distract them from political revolt.

The New York Times

As a comedy dealing with life's miseries, it displays a controlled sophistication in the telling that gives it a feeling of almost classic directness and simplicity.

The Irish Times by Tara Brady

Mandabi’s playful grammar and arresting camerawork are as exciting and politically charged as anything that emerged from the contemporaneous Nouvelle Vague.

The Guardian by Peter Bradshaw

This is gentle, walking-pace cinema that leads us by the hand from vignette to vignette, from scene to scene, presented to us with ingenuous simplicity and calm.

Times (UK) by Kevin Maher

It's powerful material, expertly orchestrated.

Irish Times by Tara Brady

Mandabi's playful grammar and arresting camerawork are as exciting and politically charged as anything that emerged from the contemporaneous Nouvelle Vague.

The New York Times by Roger Greenspun

As a comedy dealing with life's miseries, it displays a controlled sophistication in the telling that gives it a feeling of almost classic directness and simplicity.

Austin Chronicle by Selome Hailu

Sembène achieves this balance of tone with a mix of absurd and biting dialogue and a modest mise en scène.

TV Guide Magazine

A keen satire, MANDABI is not only Sembene's first comedy and first film in color, but also his first in Wolof, the language spoken by most Senegalese people. Its critique of a postcolonial state is much more narrowly focused than those of his earlier short films, and, as the first Senegalese film to be distributed commercially in Senegal, it more than got its point across.

Slant Magazine by Keith Uhlich

Through it all Sembène maintains a steady, humanist touch.

TV Guide Magazine by Staff (Not Credited)

A keen satire, MANDABI is not only Sembene's first comedy and first film in color, but also his first in Wolof, the language spoken by most Senegalese people. Its critique of a postcolonial state is much more narrowly focused than those of his earlier short films, and, as the first Senegalese film to be distributed commercially in Senegal, it more than got its point across.

Chicago Reader

This wryly mordant film achieved many firsts for the illustrious father of African cinema.

The Austin Chronicle by Selome Hailu

It's an illuminating example of neorealist filmmaking and highly stylized comedy from a much needed non-Western perspective.

Chicago Reader by Kat Sachs

This wryly mordant film achieved many firsts for the illustrious father of African cinema.

Village Voice

Honest but stupid. [19 Mar 1970, p.54]

Village Voice by Jonas Mekas

Honest but stupid. [19 Mar 1970, p.54]