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9 out of 11 people found the following comment useful :- very honest, modest, counter-Hollywood style and held-back film, 28 April 2006 Author: huh_oh_i_c from Earth, Solar system
Little Senegal has this very sparse style, about a Senegalese man searching for the descendants of his enslaved family, 300 years later. Especially the beginning of the film, with all the old white Southerners is reminiscent of the Golden Age of American cinema, the Seventies ('They shoot horses, don't they?', 'Lolly-Madonna' etc.)It's so refreshing to watch a film and not hear a constant jitter of back ground music, aiming for music-CD sales. I guess that 75 percent of this film doesn't have ANY music whatsoever. This film respects the viewer, and doesn't waste time with showing scenes that aren't really necessary. In your average Hollywood flic, you would have seen scenes that would be about the main characters not understanding each other, and conflict-scenes. Not so in this one. We jump from scene to scene, while everybody harmonically agrees.In the middle of the film, Alloune (Sotigui Kouyaté) finds happiness with Ida (Shareon Hope). It's maybe unkind to say, but he looks a lot worse when he's happy and he has a big smile.Apparently, I'm not the only one who thinks that this film is a gem, NINE WINS? Well done.
7 out of 8 people found the following comment useful :- Touching and engaging multi-layered story., 25 May 2001 Author: toclement
*** This comment may contain spoilers ***
The background of this film is complicated enough: it's an Algerian-French-German co-production of a story about a man in Senegal who works as a tour guide at a historical site where slaves were taken to America. He soon heads across the Atlantic himself in an effort to trace his own family's history in America. His search, which is handled with grace and poise, eventually lands him in New York City.*possible minor spoilers* There he bunks with a nephew and tracks down the whereabouts of a woman who he has uncovered to be a somewhat distant cousin. He is reluctant to immediately tell the woman of their relationship, but rather takes a job as a helper at her street newsstand. The film then focuses on the very realistic and heartwarming relationship that develops between the two, first as boss-to-employee, then as friend-to-friend, then as lover-to-lover, and finally as cousin-to-cousin. The beauty with which their friendship cum romance develops is so real and understandable that it matters not that they might be distant relatives. This film is as much a statement about our sometimes "boxed" views of love as it is about anything else.But there-in lies the films beauty... it is about so much more. Intertwined with the basic plotline are stories involving family, childhood, drug use, living in the streets, parental responsibilities, societally (and male)-imposed roles for women, within-race racism, death, honor, dignity, and ceremony. When the film ends you will feel like you have witnessed a special accomplishment, a truly rare treat. The acting is at times ever-so-slightly awkward, but if anything, it adds to the charm of the film as well as to its realism. The two leads (Sotigui Kouyate and Sharon Hope) are outstanding, and Rachid Bouchareb deserves accolades for directing and co-writing one of the most memorable films of the year so far.I hope the film gets distribution in the U.S.
5 out of 5 people found the following comment useful :- A French film in America, 9 January 2008 Author: Carlos Martinez Escalona from Mexico
When you write a story worth telling, you must do so. This one is a superbly written piece of literature and cinematography. Set in New York, mainly, Little Senegal is a compassionate, crude and compelling story about love.Maybe many would disagree with the idea of love when most layers on this film seem to be about hatred and senselessness. But even when these very negative subjects are clearly portrayed on film, the basic force that moves it is love. A love so deep that can endure mostly anything. The love of someone who wants to know. A man in a search that he won't let go, 'til its very end.This film has been called counter-Hollywood. I think it's just a French-Senegalese-German film that, -as most film-making in the world, is not counter-Hollywood, it's just pure cinema, where all the flashiness and predictable stupidity seen in most American films is simply not even considered.This film is a triumph in showing the terrible change that actually happens every day in American society. The dark side -a very broad one, of its "Dream". A life that is no dream for millions. Something most Americans wouldn't even consider a possibility in their country. Something pretty well kept by the current Administration (2008) and prosecuted as crime (illegal immigrants), when it is a reality that has made the US what is now.This film left me thinking about many things (you can see the twin towers in winter, against the sky, from a grave) that have happened since 2001, when this film was premiered.Incosistent lives. Weird calls from politicians to their country to keep it safe. Alienating policies. Building a wall that may be the most degrading act since Berlin's Wall and the new Wall of Jerusalem.This is not a documentary, but it is well documented. And it's only about the lives of a few people, but it represents a huge amount of "others" who embraced the motto ("The American Dream") and fell into its fangs, unaware that it would change their lives from the inside.It's a fact I lived many times, a fact we see every day, but a fact we don't want to look at, because it makes us feel guilty.Acting is spot-on, cinematography is what cinematography should always be: a medium to convey the story to the viewer, and on this film, it's plainly brilliant. One of the most exhilarating qualities of this film is the way sound is mixed: most of the time its direct sound is so forceful that you actually "feel" the weather. The soundtrack is outstanding and it comes in handy many times to play a character on its own.Watch this film, you won't be disappointed. Be ready to cringe and cry.
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