The Little Girl Who Sold the Sun

Sili, a young teenage street kid, decides to hit the streets and sell newspapers to make ends meet. The other newspaper boys don't like her moving on their territory and give her a hard time. This is an observing piece on street life poverty.

the movie is about the life of Sili, a young handicapped girl in Dakar, Senegal. it shows her struggles to earn a living in a world which is cruel yet can be wonderful too, if you have the courage and the go getter attitude to battle it out. i found her story to be very inspiring. also, you get to see dakar, senegal as it is now. a third world nation which is developing and yet at the same time the poverty which is present everywhere. highly recommended !!!

because IMDb requires even more commentary, here are some of my personal observations. even though the people are poor they are stoic about it. that is an uniquely African attitude. the frustration of individual's is contained within the body/soul until it comes out in a single anguished scream. or so it seems to me. also, the depiction of poverty in this movie is spot on. if you have never been to a third world country, well this will shock you, but it's totally realistic. actually, real life is much worse, the part where she flashes her money, in real life somebody would have taken it for sure. so the movie is kinda naive, but overall i liked the feel good message of the movie.

The Sun is a newspaper, and the girl is a crippled girl living on the streets of Senegal in poverty with her blind grandmother. The film is basically a parable of her fortitude and the adversity she faces, with inspiring gestures of solidarity and thought-provoking elements of strife--even her enemies are sympathetic in the sense that they, too, struggle with poverty. This would be a wonderful film to show to children for discussion.

Being a poor and handicapped girl in a large West-African city guarantees a life full of hardship. But Sili is determined to take her fate into her own hands. She stops begging and starts to sell the newspaper 'le Soleil'. Although healthy boys dominate this business, she is immediately successful.

The atmosphere of the movie is slightly naïve; Sili successful stands up to policemen and even frees a woman who was imprisoned innocently. Although a bit fairytale-like, the girl Sili is indeed a worthy tribute to the street children of Dakar.

It was a joy to watch this outstanding film on the life of street children in Senegal. There was some sadness, but the story of determination of the small newspaper-seller was so profound. Lissa Baldera is an outstanding young actress (sadly, it was her only film to date). The fact that there was so sentimentalization by the director of these children's lives made that film that much more profound. Highly recommended.