La pirogue

Convincing and involving account of an Africa to Spain, week long ocean crossing attempt. We see the recruiting, preparation and motivation of the participants. The "People Smugglers" are not presented as heavies and the boat people are not shown as flawless innocents, which adds to conviction. Incidents pick out the humanity of the participants. Telling scenes like passing another becalmed Pirogue, the theft of the panic victim's chicken or the dignified group leader telling his associate not to eat the standard gift sandwich.

Interesting the amount of worthwhile film coming out of the former French colonies, while the British seem to have a much less significant output.

This is a beautiful movie. It surely deserves to be seen. It is a good representation of Senegal nowadays. The movie is very sad but the director never pushes too far the pathetic side of the story. The story is simple Overall the acting is very good and characters look real. There are not bad or good characters in this movie, each character is complex and is shown in his complexity. The closed and oppressive atmosphere of the pirogue is very well shown by the director.

This movie can almost be watched as a documentary but this is a political movie. It shows the motives of Senegalese who embark on these pirogues to go to Europe and, indirectly, it shows the violence of European immigration polices that force those people to take huge risks in the hope of a better life.