A poor man struggles to make a living in Dakar via his horse drawn cart, which he uses for a taxi. We hear his inner thoughts as he wonders when people will pay him, and how he's going to make repairs to one of his wheels. It's 1963, just three years after Senegal was liberated from the French, and in one scene we see the Place de l'Obelisque that commemorates this fact. It should be a time of freedom and opportunity, and at one point we hear this optimistic sentiment:
"Who's singing the praises of my ancestors, those brave warriors of yesteryear? The same blood runs through my veins. Just because this new life has me working like a slave doesn't mean I'm any less noble than my ancestors."
However, we soon see that despite the withdrawal of the French, things haven't changed for the downtrodden, like this man. He's taken advantage of by a wealthy man, and a police officer leaves him in a very precarious state relative to how he's going to support his family. His sentiment changes:
"Yesterday was the same, and the day before that. We work for nothing. What'll I say at home? What will I say? How will I pay for my cart now? I might as well die!"
At just 18 minutes, it's not fleshed out, but director Ousmane Sembène left quite an impression with a film that feels like a wonderful short story. There is great power in the restraint of his ending too - we can use our imaginations, as the man will be doing, to think about what his wife will be off doing to feed the family.