Films/DVD Asylum

Posted by tinear (A) on October 21, 2008 at 20:30:27

very mature work from a talent as original as Wenders, Tarkovsky, or Tarr.
Sissako, the director, was born in Mauritania, grew up in Mali, and received his film training in Moscow: it shows.
The title refers to the name given to the hovels in which reside those awaiting transportation to other countries.
This is a mature work of poetry more so than narrative filmmaking. Forget the clichés of Africa and be prepared to meet a group of unusual characters all struggling with loss of culture, family, and persona.
In a mesmerizing interview which is provided with the DVD, the director states, as a dislocated African, that the feeling of exile begins immediately upon the decision of the traveler to leave his homeland.
But one needn't analyze this film to enjoy it. The young man returning to his hometown who has forgotten his own native language, the urchin who trains with the irritable older man for a job which may or may not provide him with sustenance, the young girl studying a music which has all but been destroyed by Western influence--- these characters will long live in the viewer's mind.
To ignore this man's work is to miss out on a continent of knowledge, of feelings.