Little Senegal

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.

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.)

The film also belies the Western image of Africans as overly emotional. I mean, if this is emotional, God spare us a RESERVED African filmmaker! ;) j/k.

It's so refreshing to watch a film and not hear a constant jitter of background 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).

Apparently, I'm not the only one who thinks that this film is a gem, TEN WINS? Well done!!!

The Melancholic Alcoholic.

this is a great film to me showing the importance

of knowing you you-heritage and how to live.

it touches on the difference aspects of of Senegal

and Western culture.

highly recommended. there need to be

more films like this. i have been searching

for more movies

similar to this.great job hope many will buy DVD i was born in USA but have family in Senegal. So I fully understand how and why this great film was made.