Starting his moviemaking in 1968 with Contras-City, dubbed the first African comedy, the next year he made Badou Boy, a roguish interplay between the establishment and the guys on the street.

And so followed his three most recognised movies: Touki Bouki (1973), Hyenas (1992) and Le Franc (1993). Finally African and European investors began to support him for the cinematic poet he undoubtedly was.

When he died he was in post-production on the fourth in the series, La Petite Vendeuse de soleil (The Little Girl who Sold the Sun), which tells the tale of a little crippled girl who takes on the malevolent world of Dakar street traders and is now considered his masterpiece. In Le Franc (1994) also showing, Mambety used the French government's 50% devaluation of the West African Franc in 1994 as the basis for a whimsical yet trenchant parable. For the millions of people impoverished by this, the national lotteries became their only slim hope.

Describing himself, Mambety once said: "Griot is the word for what I do and the role that the film-maker has in society. It means more than a story-teller; a griot is a messenger of one's time, a visionary and the creator of the future. The film-maker represents the collective consciousness of his people, and he has to make it sublime and useful."

Djibril Diop Mambety died last year, but not his fantastical world, not his modem parables, not his many friends and admirers, and certainly not his influence on African and world cinema. That contract has not expired. It continues in the two films showing here. Douglas Brodoff