Le Voyageur Noir

After watching a few short films made by university students and some Oscar winning shorts, I have observed that the films that win acclaim mostly fix its entire scope on a singular event and generally elevate the movie to a level where one presumes he or she has guessed the ending only to be deceived with a climax that is highly unexpected yet totally believable and (forgive me for using this word but I still have the teenager in me) awesome!

When a black man is humiliated on a train for an extended period of time by an elderly woman and there is a supporting focus on a third character, we always tend to assume the third character comes to focus in the end. I had a feeling that the guy would suddenly face the woman and ask her to control herself. Or say the child sitting opposite would kick the lady. Or if the director goes for a Scary Movie ending, then all the passengers would get up and stab that hag to death. But the ending will be a surprise no one would have guessed.

The thing that fetched it the Oscar, apart from its plot, is the irony in the title. Not many movies have so cleverly named their film.

My Rating: 8 out of 10

As a producer, director, and writer I tend to watch things the first time without attaching my expert cynicisms. I leave that for the second viewing. This film deserves a watch, and a purchase to your permanent collection of short films.

And if your new to shorts this will set your benchmark very high for quality of story; which makes up for about 95% of a films quality, especially for the lack of originality the industry suffers from.

Finally, the production quality in the very first shot is very deceptive in that it requires patience for researchers of the art and craft such as myself.

Pepe Danquart's Oscar-winning "Schwarzfahrer" is a look not only at racism, but at its subtlety. The old woman who rants against immigrants is odious enough, but more important is that no one challenges her. To be certain, her rant sounds like what we still hear from these losers, or from politicians looking to score votes. I immediately saw a link between the old woman's "blacks carry AIDS" and Donald Trump's "Mexicans bring drugs".

It would be easy to say that due to Germany's history, it has no choice but to make movies like this. In reality this should apply to every country. Racism exists everywhere. And as Billy Bragg said, racism must always get challenged. After all, no one is born racist.

Definitely see the movie.

I saw this at the Goethe Institut in my city and the lady who introduced it was very proud of it but I thought, oh, she's just saying that to market her country. Then it started, and for the first few minutes it had this thing about it that made you want to stick with it to the end, the old lady has got to be one of the best actresses I have ever watched. Do they give awards for actors in short films? Why didn't she get one? she was so convincing, so annoying and the other actors who just sat/stood there without saying anything as she went on and on with that moth of hers, wanted to just shout out something nasty. And then the ending. way better than what I wanted to do to her. That guy gave me the most satisfying shock ever. Perfect. It also felt kind of weird in a nice way that Germany, the country where some of the worst discrimination stories of the century came from, made this film about how dumb it is to discriminate. Genius. I don't think I will ever give a ten again again but this was worth it.

So people are falling all over themselves saying how great this little film is. Really? Because the best way to eradicate racism is to act in ways which confirm racist stereotypes?

Needless to say, I disagree with the praise heaped on this short work, which I frankly found rather petty. The old lady probably has tons of issues, but even if you want to categorically denounce her as a racist, how does the Schwarzfahrer's behavior do anything to help improve the situation of other black persons? Answer: it does not. (Just like virtue signaling, which accomplishes nothing beyond allowing the person emoting to feel smugly superior to those whom they denounce.)

So the guy gets a short-term feeling of revenge. Big deal. It helps no one. Why? Because the lady will just regale all of her racist friends with the tale of how one of these horrible immigrants did her wrong. And she will not be telling a lie. Then they will all take this sort of anecdote and run with it, embellishing and perpetuating all of the racial stereotypes which they have long held. They all have their stories. This is how to start one, not to eradicate racism.