Little Senegal (2000)

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.