The Little Girl Who Sold the Sun

The forty-minute short movie gives us a view of the people’s life in Senegal. On a different landscape and under a different culture, people do and react to things probably in a different way, but there are also things that we have in common. In the opening scene, a woman is arrested in the marketplace. She screams and kicks like crazy because she is wrongly accused. The man who accuses her for theft looks like a jerk to me. He keeps putting his hand into her handbag and even tears her clothes off. The market people surround her, watch her humiliation, but do nothing to assist her. I think there’s a correlation between us as viewers and the crowd of people in the marketplace. If we are right there on the scene, are we able to jump out of our comfort zone and give her our helping hand? This may not only be the problem for people in Senegal, but also a problem for everyone else. For instance, when we watch news and heard about tragic things, most of us probably think it’s none of our business. Calling the audience to be more sympathetic and less detached is what Mambety trying to do here.

The main story is about a poor little girl whose name is Sili. She lives on the street of Dakar and moves with crutches. Though Sili is physically handicapped, she is very bold and determined. Instead of begging, she becomes a newspaper vendor which is a trade dominated by boys. She never gets scared by the intimidations from some older boys. Even when they push her and make her fall, I see no frustration or anger on her face. She never forgets to smile after someone helps her climb up. She also has the kindest heart. When she receives a large sum of money from a stranger, she buys the singing woman a large umbrella and gives every beggar a little change.

After watching the movie, I noticed there are a lot of contradictory elements. There aren’t much bright colors like green or red. The hot, dry and dusty land gives me an impression of lifelessness, and it seems that the people have to struggle really hard to survive. It is difficult to imagine what kind of life people are having inside those shabby houses made up by a mixture of mud, plastic and fabric. Ironically, I see a sign of modern technology. There are cars running on the road and a plane taking off from a distance far away. It puzzled me how the things from the modern world can coexist with the people under great poverty. The kind-hearted girl and the watching crowd form another sharp contrast. This reminds me of the fable that Sili tells her friend and she says the youngest are the wisest. It doesn’t make much sense to me at first, but after a second thought that’s very true. Sili is a very good example and she is giving us new hope that changes are taking place from the bottom of the society.