L'Enfant Noir
((France-Guinea -- Drama -- Color))
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Baba ... Baba Camara
Madou ... Madou Camara
Kouda ... Kouda Camara
Moussa ... Moussa Keita
Moussa's first wife ... Koumba Doumbouya
Gold Merchant ... Yaya
Script's source is the autobiographical novel issued in 1953 by Guinean author Camara Laye. Deciding to update the tale to present-day Africa, Chevallier, who previously directed documentaries, found several of the author's relatives still in place and cast them in central roles.
Result is a unique hybrid: while the half-century jump between the novel's events and the pic's setting stresses the continuity of the African experience, the setting and non-pro cast add a strong flavor of authenticity.
Tale begins by showing the easygoing, traditional life of teenage Baba (Baba Camara) and his family in a village on the Niger River in central Guinea. While his mother Kouda (Kouda Camara) scolds Baba for roaming with his pals after dark , the general atmosphere of the clan's simple life is warm and close-knit.
His father Madou (Madou Camara) wants better things for his son and so decides to send him away to school, a move the boy greets with considerable uncertainty.
When he arrives in the coastal city of Conakry, Baba finds everything fast-paced and new in a way that both dazzles and bewilders him. His first taste of sea water is a surprise, and he encounters challenges both in the French lessons at school and in finding a place amid the large, comfortably middle-class family of his uncle Moussa (Moussa Keita), with whom he lives.
The events of Baba's first year in Conakry have the random ups and downs of any such real-life experience, as opposed to the stricter contours of standard drama.
At the story's end, when Baba returns home for the summer, the viewer can't help but be impressed at how much he has changed, and at how subtly the pic has conveyed a broad range of African life.
Humanistic without being sentimental or didactic, Chevallier's work as a debuting dramatic helmer shows much talent and promise. Tech credits are all first-rate, with especially valuable contributions coming from cinematographer Amar Arhab and scorer Momo Wandel Soumah.
Camera (color), Amar Arhab; editor, Ange-Marie Revel; music, Momo Wandel Soumah; set design, Yan Arlaud; costumes, Jeanne Delavison; sound, Olivier Schwob. Reviewed at Cannes Film Festival (Directors Fortnight), May 23, 1995. Running time: 92 min.
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