Samba (2015)

Highly Overrated But Still Good

Very interesting film. Was caught on the premise when seeing the trailer but unsure as to what the outcome would be for the showing. As it turns out, it was a very good film.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

Samba Cissé (Omar Sy) is an undocumented migrant from Senegal living with his uncle in Paris. He's been in the country for ten years and is working in a kitchen. He's offered a contract and tries to apply for papers. He's quickly arrested and put in detention. Alice (Charlotte Gainsbourg) is a new social worker assigned to his case. He befriends Jonas who hasn't seen his fiancé Gracieuse for two years. He is ordered to leave France and allowed to walk out of the detention center. He befriends an Algerian named Wilson as he struggles to find work with the order hanging over his head.There are some funny moments of the social workers struggling to make sense of their clients. Omar Sy is a compelling presence. He has real charisma. This was released in 2014 but it feels like the news have overtaken the migrant issue. This movie is not all light and fun but it definitely does not take that issue to that level. Watching it only two years later, it feels very dated. This kind of comedy with touches of drama doesn't fit these dark times.

First of all, Samba is not a movie about dancing. I guess we all know that but I really felt like making this joke. Forgive my sometimes childish spirit. Samba is an enjoyable movie about a subject we are all aware of: ilegal immigrants. Unfortunately, ilegal immigrants are not our primary concern and I doubt anyone wastes more than 5 seconds a year thinking about them and their situation.Samba is a nice young man from Senegal who finds himself as close to being deported as when he arrived in Paris ten years back. During this decade in Paris, he worked in all sorts of jobs to take care of his family back home, and hoping to one day legalize his situation. In his particular struggle surviving in France and hiding from the police, he will find 3 people to rely on: his uncle who gives him a roof, a funny Arabic man who like him does not have a visa, and a french girl who is helping immigrants while taking a break from her real job. The adventures of our protagonist will make you laugh, and they will make you sad. Either way, they are a clear representation of the reality for thousands of men who are completely forgotten by the world, and who were born to struggle. More than men, they are like ghosts in our cities. As a conclusion, I would said, this is not the best movie I have seen by any means, but clearly a movie I am happy to have watched. I am not going to become a social worker just yet, but at least, the thought of these brave men will stay with me for more than a few seconds I previously dedicated to their cause.

Samba is the title of Omar Sy's new French comedy-drama and also the name of his immigrant character who is working as a kitchen hand in France. While Samba is preparing to become a chef, he's detained by immigration. Coming to his aid are two women: a younger woman named Manu (Izia Higelin) and the older, more stressful and inexperienced Alice (Charlotte Gainsbourg). They're both working for a non- government organisation like Cimade, which helps refugees and immigrants. Alice has had a meltdown and spent time away from her job as an executive and is now volunteering to support immigrants like Samba. While detained, Samba befriends a man who claims to have been in a relationship with a model. Samba promises the man that he'll tell the woman that he's being held. When released, Samba secretly remains in France and takes on random jobs such as a window cleaner with his friend Wilson (Tahir Rahim), who claims to be Brazilian. Samba also dabbles upon a potential romance with Alice, despite Manu telling her to keep her distance from the people they're helping. Directors Eric Toledano and Oliver Nakache last made The Intouchables, which starred Omar Sy in a star making role as a young man who was a caretaker for a wheelchair bound quadriplegic. It was a hilarious if predictable comedy but it was very tightly structured around its central relationship. The film was a mega hit and arguably one of the most successful French films ever made. It earned over $400 million dollars worldwide. Big dollars like this brings sizable expectations with any follow-up but also the sense of having to compromise to reach those lofty financial targets again. In this instance, it feels like there were counter-forces at work, drawing this film away from its most serious issues social issues. Perhaps this is also why the film seems like it has undergone extensive editing, accounting for the inconsistent plot ideas and tonal shifts. Samba is drawn from the novel "Samba for France" by Delphine Coulin. Its ill-disciplined and feels like an unfinished cut. The cast have described it not being a message movie, a drama, or a comedy but all three genres together, which typifies how unfocused it can seem. While dealing with grounded, timeless issues like unemployment and immigration it's compromised to include more commercial components like the drawn-out potential romance between Samba and Alice and the broad shades of comedy and thus it plays like a patchwork of ideas. The directors themselves have said that the film evolved over time, which seems evident here. The immigration facet is the most effective like when Samba is advised by his uncle to shape his identity by dressing like a businessman. On a train he feels as though everyone is looking at him, which amplifies his insecurity and claustrophobia. Communication is also at the forefront with the aid workers struggling to understand and overcome the language barriers of the migrants. The early scenes covering this issue reveal how the comedy and social drama can sometimes comfortably mesh together. But over its two hours the film is highly episodic and disjointed in its structure. Some of the film's episodes are light and occasionally funny. The scenes between Sy and Rahim showcase a fun pairing, particularly during a sequence on a rooftop. It's a vastly different mood for Rahim after films like A Prophet and the Iranian drama The Past, and it works well for him. The film though seems insecure about what it's trying to be because it's not as consistently funny as The Intouchables or involving enough as a drama alone. Omar Sy is hugely charismatic but the inner goal or motive of his character also feels lost at times to the film's fragmented structure and in the early scenes I kept waiting for more comedy from Samba. Charlotte Gainsbourg is solid in a role well-tailored to her because few actresses are as adept at showing a physically rattled and stressed exterior. Her character Alice wasn't in the novel but developed from scratch. Momentarily, Samba isn't unenjoyable but suffers under the weight of it's overlength and hit and miss approach to its broader topics.

"Samba" (2014 release from France; 115 min.) brings the story of Samba Cissé. As the movie opens, the camera pans from a wedding reception to ultimately the back kitchen, where we meet Samba, an illegal resident in Paris hailing from Senegal, making ends meet as a dishwasher. It's not long before Samba gets into trouble, and he faces possible deportation, despite having live in France already 10 years. Alice, a novice social worker/pro bono immigration adviser, is assigned to Samba's case. To tell you more would spoil your viewing experience, you'll just have to see for yourself how it all plays out.Couple of comments: first, this is a return of the team that brought us the delightful "The Untouchables" a few years ago: co-directors Olivier Nakache and Eric Toledano, and lead actor Omar Sy. On top of that, one of my favorite actresses, Charlotte Gainsbourg, co-stars. So this just HAS to be a great movie, right? Alas, it was not to be. From almost the very beginning of the movie, the plot is riddled with clichés and one-dimensional characters. Alice, played by Gainsbourg, is a rookie, literally the first day on the job. She is told by a co-worker who is training her that she should never, ever give out her phone number to any of the immigrants she is assigned to assist. So what does Alice do within minutes? Give her phone number to Samba, of course! The immigration system is portrayed as absurd, and I'm sure that there are serious issues there, but the way that the directors present it to us (all illegal immigrants: angels! immigration officials: the devil incarnate!) just made me roll my eyes. As for the supposed "comedy" aspects of this movie, I didn't notice much of any. I'm sorry if I'm being harsh on this movie. I'm sure this movie was well-intended, and I really wanted to like it, but when the movie was over, I felt very disappointed and, frankly, let down. Please note there is a nice soundtrack (available in France but not in the US, as far as I can tell), which features the Brothers Johnson's "Stomp", Bob Marley's "Waiting In Vain", and Cyreeta's "To Know You Is to Love You", among many others.I saw this movie during a recent family visit in Belgium. The early evening screening where I saw this at was quite well attended actually. I have no idea if or when this movie will make it to US theaters, although given the success on the art-house theater circuit of "The Untouchables", I wouldn't be surprised that this gets a US release at some point. Whether in the theater or eventually on DVD/Blu-ray, I encourage you to check this out and draw your own conclusions about "Samba".