Sembene’s first comedy, his first film in color, and first work in Wolof—the language spoken by most of the population of Senegal—Mandabi is the deceptively simple story of a man whose initial good fortune leads to encounters with an intimidating barrage of Third World bureaucracy. The film, which consists of a series of comic mishaps involving Dieng’s futile attempts to get an identity card so he can cash his check, takes the viewer on a journey with corrupt government officials and impoverished members of Dakar’s proletariat. Mandabi was seen as a betrayal by many in the newly independent Senegal. The fact that the film was a comedy did not spare Sembene’s film from attacks in the press.