All detainees are given advocacy services and one of the group’s volunteers, Alice, is moved by his plight. But instead, he runs into the juggernaut of the present day anti-immigration sentiment and is arrested and sent to a detention center. He has taken every menial kitchen job that he can find and finally, when offered a permanent staff job, he feels he has enough to his credit to apply for legal residency. He would like to obtain permanent, legal status with the goal of becoming a chef. Samba, an illegal immigrant from Senegal, has been working menial jobs in Paris for the past 10 years with two important objectives in mind. Benefiting from a superb cast led by Omar Sy, the Cësar-winning actor of “The Intouchables,” and Charlotte Gainsbourg, one of France’s preeminent actresses (and daughter of Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin), supported brilliantly by Tahir Rahim and newcomer Youngar Fall, tackles its topical subject – illegal immigration – with grace and melancholy. It should have been better, but even so, is still good enough. “Samba” is a film by writers/directors Olivier Nakache and Eric Toledano, the duo responsible for the wonderful “Intouchables” of a few years back. But Samba is worth celebrating for its amicable and inquisitive visit to an underworld which, in most French films, would be grimly tooled up with guns and knives.Omar Sy and Charlotte Gainsbourg In “Samba.” Photograph copyright by David Koskas. As Samba, Omar Sy suggests a coy and vulnerable heart inside a burly frame.Īs a love story the film doesn’t have quite enough va-va-voom, while the enigmatic ending feels like a misstep. With silent moues, Gainsbourg delightfully captures the air of a wounded animal seeking to back away from the headlights, apart from one memorable public explosion. The result is addiction to sleeping pills and wide-eyed diffidence. Alice, the film quietly suggests, is as much a prisoner of a stratified society which requires her to don a business suit adn conform. Later they flee the police by comically hot-footing it shoelessly over Paris’s rooftops.Īt the heart of the film is a tentative romance between Samba and Alice, who spend much of their joint screen time shyly misconnecting. He pals up with Walid aka Wilson ( Tahar Rahim), an Algerian masquerading as a Brazilian (to have more success with the ladies), who does the erotic dance from the Coke ad as they dangle from a wobbly window-cleaning gantry halfway up a high rise office block. “To leave France I go that way?” Samba screams when denied the right to remain and released from detention facility next to the airport. The script, by Delphine and Muriel Coulin with additional dialogue by the directors, even has a soft spot for mordant farce. In another telling, the tale of an illegal immigrant on the run in the big city might seek to tear at your heartstrings, but Samba declares itself as a comedy the second Alice’s brassy colleague Manu (Izïa Higelin, pictured) sets off a metal detector with a pair of piercings below the midriff. His case handler Alice ( Charlotte Gainsbourg) is a nervous sociopath working pro bono after suspension from her proper job following a violent meltdown. Samba ( Omar Sy), whose name keeps changing whenever he needs a new ID, has been working in Paris for a decade, but is facing extradition back to Senegal. In a minute directors Olivier Nakache and Eric Toledano have deftly ferried us into the world of the invisible Parisian underclass. A splendid tracking shot which opens the film moves through a blingy hotel from the choreographed celebrations of a very white wedding through to the crowded chaos of the multi-ethnic kitchen.
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