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

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

It's powerful material, expertly orchestrated.

In his second full-length feature, the 1968 dramedy Mandabi, Senegalese filmmaker Ousmane Sembène presents a land that's filled with both beggars and choosers.