Every action in "Little Senegal" reverberates across the centuries. The film, by French-Algerian director Rachid Bouchareb, finds simple, human terms to explore the dark legacy of violence and broken families that American slavery created. "Senegal" needs only 97 minutes to suggest more about the psychological aftermath of slavery than the legendary miniseries "Roots" did.
Unfortunately, "Senegal"'s chance for a release where it really should be seen -- North America -- is not good. A film that attempts to link the black communities in Africa and America and explore the bonds and antagonisms between them is not likely to thrill even a specialty distributor. Perhaps more festival exposure following its high-profile screening in competition at the Berlin International Film Festival might get the film across the Atlantic, where a distributor may take a chance on it.
The modern-day story traces the historical itinerary of Africans forced into slavery in the New World. Its hero is a 65-year-old widower, Alloune (Sotigui Kouyate), who has worked for years in a slave museum on the Senegalese island of Goree. After retiring, Alloune goes to America to trace ancestors who were abducted centuries earlier from his native village.
His journey takes him first to South Carolina and its lush plantations and modern research libraries, and he later arrives in Harlem. These early scenes, while interesting, tend to be flat as Bouchareb has apparently chosen to use nonactors for the scenes. But once Alloune arrives in New York, the story grows in complexity, and the director's themes firmly take hold.
Alloune stays with his nephew Karim (Roschdy Zem) in a Senegalese community in Harlem. Here, he locates Ida Robinson (Sharon Hope), a woman about his age who runs a newsstand. Convinced she is his cousin, he approaches her.
She mistakenly believes he is applying for a job. Realizing this, Alloune decides to take the job and get to know her better before revealing the nature of his journey to America. This involves him in Ida's estrangement from her pregnant granddaughter, Eileen (Malaaika Lacario), who has run away from home. In his attempt to reunite these two, Alloune runs up against social and economic tensions unlike any he experienced in Senegal.
Alloune's two families reflect not only the divide between the African and African-American communities but also the clash between old and new values within both communities. A growing friendship that turns into love between Alloune and Ida does explore the possibility that bonds can develop. Yet Bouchareb is realistic enough to show how fragile they are: Alloune's and Ida's great affection for each other is torn apart by a senseless act of violence.
Bouchareb, who wrote the script with Olivier Lorelle, is also delving into the immigrant experience -- one that, as he well knows, applies as much to France as America. The pressures of language, economics, green cards and unsettling social mores come at newcomers from all sides.
Stage and film veteran Kouyate delivers an invaluable portrait of an old man who honors the past. Hope touchingly limns a woman lost in the bitterness of her life who suddenly glimpses a ray of sunshine.
Behind the scenes, camera credits are excellent. Steady, crisp cinematography and an occasional jazz score are among the highlights.
LITTLE SENEGAL
3B Prods.
France 2 Cinema, Taunus Films & Tassili Films, Cofimages 11 and Gimages 3 with the participation of Canal Plus, CNC and Equinoxe
Producer: Jean Brehat
Director: Rachid Bouchareb
Screenwriters: Olivier Lorelle, Rachid Bouchareb
Directors of photography: Benoit Chamaillard, Youcef Sahradui
Music: Safy Boutella
Costume designer: Pierre Matard
Editor: Sandrine Deegen
Color/stereo
Cast:
Alloune: Sotigui Kouyate
Ida: Sharon Hope
Karim: Roschdy Zem
Hassan: Karim Koussein Traore
Amaralis: Adetoro Makinde
Biram: Adja Diarra
Eileen: Malaaika Lacario
Running time -- 97 minutes
No MPAA rating...
Unfortunately, "Senegal"'s chance for a release where it really should be seen -- North America -- is not good. A film that attempts to link the black communities in Africa and America and explore the bonds and antagonisms between them is not likely to thrill even a specialty distributor. Perhaps more festival exposure following its high-profile screening in competition at the Berlin International Film Festival might get the film across the Atlantic, where a distributor may take a chance on it.
The modern-day story traces the historical itinerary of Africans forced into slavery in the New World. Its hero is a 65-year-old widower, Alloune (Sotigui Kouyate), who has worked for years in a slave museum on the Senegalese island of Goree. After retiring, Alloune goes to America to trace ancestors who were abducted centuries earlier from his native village.
His journey takes him first to South Carolina and its lush plantations and modern research libraries, and he later arrives in Harlem. These early scenes, while interesting, tend to be flat as Bouchareb has apparently chosen to use nonactors for the scenes. But once Alloune arrives in New York, the story grows in complexity, and the director's themes firmly take hold.
Alloune stays with his nephew Karim (Roschdy Zem) in a Senegalese community in Harlem. Here, he locates Ida Robinson (Sharon Hope), a woman about his age who runs a newsstand. Convinced she is his cousin, he approaches her.
She mistakenly believes he is applying for a job. Realizing this, Alloune decides to take the job and get to know her better before revealing the nature of his journey to America. This involves him in Ida's estrangement from her pregnant granddaughter, Eileen (Malaaika Lacario), who has run away from home. In his attempt to reunite these two, Alloune runs up against social and economic tensions unlike any he experienced in Senegal.
Alloune's two families reflect not only the divide between the African and African-American communities but also the clash between old and new values within both communities. A growing friendship that turns into love between Alloune and Ida does explore the possibility that bonds can develop. Yet Bouchareb is realistic enough to show how fragile they are: Alloune's and Ida's great affection for each other is torn apart by a senseless act of violence.
Bouchareb, who wrote the script with Olivier Lorelle, is also delving into the immigrant experience -- one that, as he well knows, applies as much to France as America. The pressures of language, economics, green cards and unsettling social mores come at newcomers from all sides.
Stage and film veteran Kouyate delivers an invaluable portrait of an old man who honors the past. Hope touchingly limns a woman lost in the bitterness of her life who suddenly glimpses a ray of sunshine.
Behind the scenes, camera credits are excellent. Steady, crisp cinematography and an occasional jazz score are among the highlights.
LITTLE SENEGAL
3B Prods.
France 2 Cinema, Taunus Films & Tassili Films, Cofimages 11 and Gimages 3 with the participation of Canal Plus, CNC and Equinoxe
Producer: Jean Brehat
Director: Rachid Bouchareb
Screenwriters: Olivier Lorelle, Rachid Bouchareb
Directors of photography: Benoit Chamaillard, Youcef Sahradui
Music: Safy Boutella
Costume designer: Pierre Matard
Editor: Sandrine Deegen
Color/stereo
Cast:
Alloune: Sotigui Kouyate
Ida: Sharon Hope
Karim: Roschdy Zem
Hassan: Karim Koussein Traore
Amaralis: Adetoro Makinde
Biram: Adja Diarra
Eileen: Malaaika Lacario
Running time -- 97 minutes
No MPAA rating...
Every action in "Little Senegal" reverberates across the centuries. The film, by French-Algerian director Rachid Bouchareb, finds simple, human terms to explore the dark legacy of violence and broken families that American slavery created. "Senegal" needs only 97 minutes to suggest more about the psychological aftermath of slavery than the legendary miniseries "Roots" did.
Unfortunately, "Senegal"'s chance for a release where it really should be seen -- North America -- is not good. A film that attempts to link the black communities in Africa and America and explore the bonds and antagonisms between them is not likely to thrill even a specialty distributor. Perhaps more festival exposure following its high-profile screening in competition at the Berlin International Film Festival might get the film across the Atlantic, where a distributor may take a chance on it.
The modern-day story traces the historical itinerary of Africans forced into slavery in the New World. Its hero is a 65-year-old widower, Alloune (Sotigui Kouyate), who has worked for years in a slave museum on the Senegalese island of Goree. After retiring, Alloune goes to America to trace ancestors who were abducted centuries earlier from his native village.
His journey takes him first to South Carolina and its lush plantations and modern research libraries, and he later arrives in Harlem. These early scenes, while interesting, tend to be flat as Bouchareb has apparently chosen to use nonactors for the scenes. But once Alloune arrives in New York, the story grows in complexity, and the director's themes firmly take hold.
Alloune stays with his nephew Karim (Roschdy Zem) in a Senegalese community in Harlem. Here, he locates Ida Robinson (Sharon Hope), a woman about his age who runs a newsstand. Convinced she is his cousin, he approaches her.
She mistakenly believes he is applying for a job. Realizing this, Alloune decides to take the job and get to know her better before revealing the nature of his journey to America. This involves him in Ida's estrangement from her pregnant granddaughter, Eileen (Malaaika Lacario), who has run away from home. In his attempt to reunite these two, Alloune runs up against social and economic tensions unlike any he experienced in Senegal.
Alloune's two families reflect not only the divide between the African and African-American communities but also the clash between old and new values within both communities. A growing friendship that turns into love between Alloune and Ida does explore the possibility that bonds can develop. Yet Bouchareb is realistic enough to show how fragile they are: Alloune's and Ida's great affection for each other is torn apart by a senseless act of violence.
Bouchareb, who wrote the script with Olivier Lorelle, is also delving into the immigrant experience -- one that, as he well knows, applies as much to France as America. The pressures of language, economics, green cards and unsettling social mores come at newcomers from all sides.
Stage and film veteran Kouyate delivers an invaluable portrait of an old man who honors the past. Hope touchingly limns a woman lost in the bitterness of her life who suddenly glimpses a ray of sunshine.
Behind the scenes, camera credits are excellent. Steady, crisp cinematography and an occasional jazz score are among the highlights.
LITTLE SENEGAL
3B Prods.
France 2 Cinema, Taunus Films & Tassili Films, Cofimages 11 and Gimages 3 with the participation of Canal Plus, CNC and Equinoxe
Producer: Jean Brehat
Director: Rachid Bouchareb
Screenwriters: Olivier Lorelle, Rachid Bouchareb
Directors of photography: Benoit Chamaillard, Youcef Sahradui
Music: Safy Boutella
Costume designer: Pierre Matard
Editor: Sandrine Deegen
Color/stereo
Cast:
Alloune: Sotigui Kouyate
Ida: Sharon Hope
Karim: Roschdy Zem
Hassan: Karim Koussein Traore
Amaralis: Adetoro Makinde
Biram: Adja Diarra
Eileen: Malaaika Lacario
Running time -- 97 minutes
No MPAA rating...
Unfortunately, "Senegal"'s chance for a release where it really should be seen -- North America -- is not good. A film that attempts to link the black communities in Africa and America and explore the bonds and antagonisms between them is not likely to thrill even a specialty distributor. Perhaps more festival exposure following its high-profile screening in competition at the Berlin International Film Festival might get the film across the Atlantic, where a distributor may take a chance on it.
The modern-day story traces the historical itinerary of Africans forced into slavery in the New World. Its hero is a 65-year-old widower, Alloune (Sotigui Kouyate), who has worked for years in a slave museum on the Senegalese island of Goree. After retiring, Alloune goes to America to trace ancestors who were abducted centuries earlier from his native village.
His journey takes him first to South Carolina and its lush plantations and modern research libraries, and he later arrives in Harlem. These early scenes, while interesting, tend to be flat as Bouchareb has apparently chosen to use nonactors for the scenes. But once Alloune arrives in New York, the story grows in complexity, and the director's themes firmly take hold.
Alloune stays with his nephew Karim (Roschdy Zem) in a Senegalese community in Harlem. Here, he locates Ida Robinson (Sharon Hope), a woman about his age who runs a newsstand. Convinced she is his cousin, he approaches her.
She mistakenly believes he is applying for a job. Realizing this, Alloune decides to take the job and get to know her better before revealing the nature of his journey to America. This involves him in Ida's estrangement from her pregnant granddaughter, Eileen (Malaaika Lacario), who has run away from home. In his attempt to reunite these two, Alloune runs up against social and economic tensions unlike any he experienced in Senegal.
Alloune's two families reflect not only the divide between the African and African-American communities but also the clash between old and new values within both communities. A growing friendship that turns into love between Alloune and Ida does explore the possibility that bonds can develop. Yet Bouchareb is realistic enough to show how fragile they are: Alloune's and Ida's great affection for each other is torn apart by a senseless act of violence.
Bouchareb, who wrote the script with Olivier Lorelle, is also delving into the immigrant experience -- one that, as he well knows, applies as much to France as America. The pressures of language, economics, green cards and unsettling social mores come at newcomers from all sides.
Stage and film veteran Kouyate delivers an invaluable portrait of an old man who honors the past. Hope touchingly limns a woman lost in the bitterness of her life who suddenly glimpses a ray of sunshine.
Behind the scenes, camera credits are excellent. Steady, crisp cinematography and an occasional jazz score are among the highlights.
LITTLE SENEGAL
3B Prods.
France 2 Cinema, Taunus Films & Tassili Films, Cofimages 11 and Gimages 3 with the participation of Canal Plus, CNC and Equinoxe
Producer: Jean Brehat
Director: Rachid Bouchareb
Screenwriters: Olivier Lorelle, Rachid Bouchareb
Directors of photography: Benoit Chamaillard, Youcef Sahradui
Music: Safy Boutella
Costume designer: Pierre Matard
Editor: Sandrine Deegen
Color/stereo
Cast:
Alloune: Sotigui Kouyate
Ida: Sharon Hope
Karim: Roschdy Zem
Hassan: Karim Koussein Traore
Amaralis: Adetoro Makinde
Biram: Adja Diarra
Eileen: Malaaika Lacario
Running time -- 97 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 2/21/2001
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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