Djibril Diop Mambéty Ciné-concerts by the Oriki Collective and Woz Kaly

“Djibril Diop Mambéty Ciné-concerts by the Oriki Collective and Woz Kaly” is a series of live performances at Film at Lincoln Center accompanying Mambéty’s restored films Le franc (1994) and The Little Girl Who Sold the Sun (1999), from March 18 through March 20. Each ciné-concert will be followed by a Q&A with the Oriki Collective and Woz Kaly, and on March 20 at 7:00pm, FLC will host a special double feature of both ciné-concerts with a reception between performances and a Q&A after the final performance.

The great Senegalese director Djibril Diop Mambéty, who is best known for his feature-length films, 1973’s epochal Touki Bouki and 1992’s satirical tragicomedy Hyenas, made two medium-length masterpieces in the ’90s that were intended to be part of a trilogy entitled “Tales of Ordinary People,” but the filmmaker died in 1998 at the age of 53 before he could complete it. Le franc (1994) and The Little Girl Who Sold the Sun (1999) punctuate, albeit too soon, Mambéty’s electric oeuvre. His final two films present rich portrayals of two dreamers as they try their luck against the cruel and absurd realities of the Dakar cityscape.

For the first time in the United States, the Oriki Collective (Yann Salètes, Mourad Baïtiche, and Michel Teyssier), together with the Senegalese vocalist Woz Kaly (founder of Missal, sang with Youssou N’Dour and toured with Touré Kunda, among others), will perform their original, live scores at Film at Lincoln Center accompanying Le franc and The Little Girl Who Sold the Sun.

Oriki’s new scores were developed over a period of five years at creative, educational, and performance residencies in France and Senegal (Dakar, Saint-Louis, Ziguinchor, and Kédougou). They had numerous exchanges with the film’s producer, Mambéty’s successors, and the cast, paying close attention to the details in the director’s creative universe. The use of sabars, the traditional polyrhythms of the Serer and Wolof ethnic groups, and the clear, melodious voices characteristic of West Africa blend harmoniously with the Eastern and Western influences of the musicians in the Oriki Collective. Together with Kaly they’ve created absorbing soundscapes that expand on Mambéty’s magical realist works grounded in the political realities of Dakar, and beautifully layer on top of the films’ original soundtracks.

The films were NYFF57 Revivals selections and are Metrograph Pictures releases.

Oriki premiered their original live score for Le franc at the Les Détours de Babel Festival in Crolles, France, in March 2024, and The Little Girl Who Sold the Sun live score premiered at the La Source auditorium in Fontaine, France, in November 2021. Additional information about the Oriki Collective can be found at oriki-music.com.

Organized by Florence Almozini and Manuel Santini.