Directed by Djibril Diop Mambéty
95 minutes
In Wolof/ Arabic/ French with English subtitles

It's incredibly rare that any director who made only few films in their entire lifetime was able to conjure up such unique visions as Senegalese filmmaker Djibril Diop Mambéty (The Girl who Stole the Sun). It doesn't feel as if he is copying any pre-made style of filmmaking—his choices are original, bold... and based on his own life experience and intelligence. 

A movie like this reflects the spirit of the artist, and Mambéty manages to create his own philosophy of the world through his cinema. What is the film about? Our main characters are homeless, they are always on the run, wandering through the wide-open spaces of poverty that almost no inhabitant has a realistic opportunity to rise from. Our couple is trying to gather together some money so they can escape, dreaming of somewhere far away—In this case Paris, France. Their dreamed of destination is represented by singing of Josephine Baker, whose voice is like a bell chiming in the blowing winds. But since this is a tale from Senegal, its meaning is expressed poetically rather than just simply by telling a story.

And of course it makes sense that something so unique and refreshing would come from a so-called Third World country, where the filmmaker has not been bombarded their entire life by marketing, Hollywood stereotypes, commercialization and standardization—he hasn't been blinded by the rules of the game. Why don't we just admit it, we are only rehashing the same things over and over, with only slight variations. Our cinema has been commercialized to death, it's become just a bag of tricks. This film, on the other hand, embraces life—the burning sun, magic spells, and crazy characters that are willing to take risks and follow their passions in this mysterious world.