We acknowledge Australia’s First Nations People as the Traditional Owners and Custodians of the land, and pay respect to the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation, upon whose Country SFF are based.
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Borom Sarret

Directed by Ousmane Sembène
1963
Senegal, France
18 minutes
Unclassified 15+
Borom Sarret (SFF 2015) is Ousmane Sembène’s debut film, often hailed as one of the most significant short films ever made – and one that paved the way for African cinema.
Borom Sarret (Wolof name for “wagoner”) is the story of a poor cart driver who loses almost everything he owns in a single day. He offers people rides into town, and only sometimes do they pay him the fare. He gets confronted by a rich customer demanding to be taken to a suburb where horse driven carts are prohibited and inevitably the police stop him and confiscate his cart. This portrait of a working man recalls neorealist classics such as Bicycle Thieves and marked the arrival of a major new talent.
Mr. Sembène gives us a pointed and poignant view of the struggle for existence in Dakar's lower depths in the 19-minute Borom Sarret
A.H. Weiler, The New York Times
Borom Sarret is about a cartman, hard pressed for cash, who during a typical day makes no money, performs a few simply human services, worries about his horse, exhibits a callousness that seems quite reasonable and finally loses his cart after breaking a law left over from colonialism
Roger Ebert

'Borom Sarret' is screening with:

Black Girl
Sat 8 June, 12:45pm, Art Gallery of New South Wales
Program Strand
Ousmane Sembene Retrospective
Original Title
The Wagoner
Year
1963
Classification
Unclassified 15+
Country
Senegal, France
Language
In Wolof and French with English subtitles
Director
Ousmane Sembène
Producer
Ousmane Sembène
Cast
Ly Abdoulay, Albourah
Screenwriter
Osumane Sembène
Cinematographer
Christian Lacoste
Editor
André Gaudier
Genre
Africa, Cinephile, Retrospective
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