Included in the same Criterion set as Ousmane Sembène's first feature film, "La Noire de..." ("Black Girl") (1966), this earliest short film by him may necessarily be a let down by comparison, but considering that it's credited as the first film ever made in Africa by a black African, it's an impressive production and beginning of Sembène's oeuvre. As in "Black Girl," "The Wagoner" is photographed in black and white and a crisp if relatively no-frills style, sound was added in post, and most of that is the internal monologue of the protagonist complaining how they feel like a slave and prisoner in their modern lives.
"The Wagoner" follows a horse-drawn cart driver through Dakar, as he's repeatedly not paid by passengers, gives what little money he does have to a panhandling singer, runs into trouble with a policeman for bringing his cart into the rich French quarter of the city and, ultimately upon his return home, wonders where his wife is wandering after she abandons him with the baby and in search of food. If this were a comedy, this hapless lead would be the stooge--the butt of a series of metropolitan jokes at his expense. Nothing goes his way, and he seemingly spends most of his day complaining in voiceover narration about it.
Besides the additional footage allowing more time to develop a narrative and postcolonial themes in "Black Girl," it also featured a plotline involving an African mask that both underscored the picture's social commentary and its own making. Art-within-art. "The Wagoner," on the other hand, moves as straightforward as the wagon. While engaging enough for a first film, it's evidently just that, as Sembène appears to be discovering a new world in film, and the spectator is just along for the ride.
