The Faculty Lounge on the sixth floor of MacAlister was packed with students and faculty on a cold February night for a Dinner and Discussion at Drexel event, featuring the Senegalese film, Faat Kiné.

The upbeat drama/comedy from Senegal followed the life Faat Kiné, a smart, sassy, self-made woman who manages a gas station to support her two illegitimate children – each from a different father. Early in the film, the children receive news of passing marks on college entrance exams. Word of the news reaches the fathers and they come around seeking respect and their unearned piece of the pie. At this point, the audience gets its first glimpse at one of the main themes of the film – the strength of the common Senegalese woman – as Faat Kiné snaps back at the men for abandoning her and their children when they could have made a difference.

Professor Rachel Reynolds, the organizer of the D3 event, gave the audience a break from the movie and invited Dr. Cheikh Babou of the History Department at the University of Pennsylvania to share his knowledge of the film. He explained some of the life history and significant works of Faat Kiné director Ousmane Sembene (who, according to Babou, is Africa's version of Martin Scorsese). In 1962, Sembene was given a grant to study film in Moscow, and later returned with the drive to not only entertain, but also address certain political problems in Africa. His philosophy, when it comes to filmmaking, is that “art should do something for people.”

Babou explained that Sembene's first major success came in 1974 in the form of a film entitled Xala. The breakthrough film followed the fall of a middle class man who showered his family with riches and gifts, only to end up in poverty. The moral value of the story reveals itself, as the man must make peace with crippled and homeless people, whom he used to walk all over when he was financially successful.

Though the film is in another language and takes place in a country most Americans will never set foot in, the moral message is central to our own country. America's similar societal problems make Faat Kiné all the more powerful of a film.