La petite vendeuse du soleil

The widely loved Djibril Diop Mambéty has a small yet impressive oeuvre and is regarded as one of the most important filmmakers to come out of Africa. This short film, the second part of what was intended to be a trilogy about ‘the stories of ordinary people’, is a hymn to the courage of street children.

For many years, newspapers have been sold on the streets of Dakar by boys. When Sili, a ten-year-old girl, decides to go out and sell papers, the boys don’t accept this. This is their territory. But Sili is successful: on the first day someone buys all her papers and gives her a big tip. No one believes she earned the money honestly. She is picked up by the police, but eventually they let her go. Sili uses the money she has earned to buy a parasol for her blind grandmother. She gives the rest to lepers. In the days that follow, Sili is again harassed by the other newspaper sellers, who are jealous of her success. In the end she makes friends with one of them.