Alice is a senior executive who has recently undergone a burn-out. Sy makes Samba's positivity and humor a real thing with practical applications, a survival skill. See? When the police finally catch up with him, Alice (Charlotte Gainsbourg), who is temporarily working as an immigration officer, stumbles into his life. He asks if she has any sleeping pills. After a gentle alien becomes stranded on Earth, the being is discovered and befriended by a young boy named Elliott. She has anger issues, and self-loathing issues, issues that one can only afford to have when operating from a place of safety and privilege. Inevitably, there is a spark between Samba and Alice. Movie review of Samba, a down the middle crowd pleaser that can't rise to the heights of The Intouchables, but is a good watch nonetheless. He is placed in a detention center with other illegal immigrants. Alice has been warned to never give out her home phone, stay detached. It is refreshing that this story does not simply unravel into miserablism, but the film’s weird narrative leaps are implausible and jarring. Dr. King meets with President Lyndon Johnson, demanding him to act on black peoples' right to vote. It's an explosive topic, with multiple layers of complexity and ugliness (xenophobia, racism), all of which is acknowledged in "Samba," but in a muted way, highlighting the absurdity of the immigrant experience as opposed to the cruelty of it. | Samba — film review. Samba has a positive attitude. As silly as that might sound (or as offensive, depending on your point of view), it is in those destabilized moments, where comedy is the response to a tragic situation, that "Samba" works. What is it that makes someone a star? It's a halting and inarticulate dance between two people drawn to one another because of the given circumstances of their lives at that particular moment. Synopsis Movie Info Sparks fly between an illegal immigrant (Omar Sy) and the caseworker (Charlotte Gainsbourg) who tries to help him stay in Paris. He's the perfect leading man. The film portrays many of the atrocities of that war, including the rebels' amputation of people's hands to stop them from voting in upcoming elections. He almost singlehandedly justifies the film's existence, and that is something only a star can do. Gainsbourg overplays Alice's awkwardness, indicating it rather than inhabiting it, but the bond between these two misfits, thrust out of their comfort zones, does have its own sweetness. Black Orpheus (Portuguese: Orfeu Negro [ɔɾˈfew ˈne.ɡɾu]) is a 1959 romantic tragedy film made in Brazil by French director Marcel Camus and starring Marpessa Dawn and Breno Mello. Omar Sy and Charlotte Gainsbourg in 'Samba' Share on Twitter (opens new window) As the film doggedly pursues Samba between nocturnal cash-in-hand gigs, doing the dirty work of a society that officially frowns on his presence, it shapes up as diet Dardennes, Ken Loach-lite. He's arrested and befriends the woman helping him with legal matters as volunteer after a burnout at work. Samba (Sy) hails from Senegal, and has lived in France for 10 years, working as a dishwasher. "Samba" (the latest by "Intouchables" writing-directing team Olivier Nakache and Eric Toledano) is a bizarre, uneven, and strangely charming movie about the bureaucratic nightmare that is illegal immigration in France (and elsewhere, of course, but this is a French story). Bringing the extraterrestrial into his suburban California house, Elliott introduces E.T., as the alien is dubbed, to his brother and his little sister, Gertie, … Omar Sy is a star in the truest sense of the word. Parents Guide. Both struggle to get out of their dead-end lives. Title: Samba Director: Eric Toledano and Olivier Nakache Starring: Omar Sy, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Tahar Rahim, Izia Higelin. Senegalese Samba has worked 10 years in France. Yet even as Samba struggles to hold onto his identity, the film becomes entangled in an identity crisis of its own. The "romance" and "comedy" of the genre are present because Sy brings them to life. A French movie in which potentially tricky subject matter is turned to sunny feel-good. They talk about women, sex, they talk about their lives and goals, they talk about how they don't want to go back. Samba Cissé (Sy) is a Senegalese man who has been living in France illegally for 10 years. As he walks down the front path of the center towards the gate, a plane zooms down the runway at the airport opposite and he shouts to the people watching him go, "Okay, that's my ride! It is there that Samba meets the shy and incompetent Alice (Charlotte Gainsbourg), a volunteer social worker, new on the job. In 2013, The Guardian called him "the hottest French film star of 2013," due to his role in the smash-hit "Intouchables". The film’s most overtly comic sequences involving the duo’s job-seeking travails and shady deals to obtain knock-off work permits. After a bureaucratic slip-up lands him in detention, he is ordered to leave France. "Samba" would have benefited greatly with a more frank acknowledgment of the disparity of their positions. One scene where Wilson and Samba flee from the police, involving a precarious escape across the slanted roofs of the neighborhood, is at first hair-raising and then hilarious, as Wilson teases Samba about his fear of heights. Plot Keywords The movie sets up the Department of Children and Family Services and its attorney as the villains when they take Lucy away from Sam and try to place her with a foster family. Empowered and Joyful: Alicia Pascual-Peña and Hadley Robinson on Moxie, Two by Louis Valray: La Belle de Nuit and Escale. This includes an enjoyable supporting turn from Tahir Rahim as a fellow immigrant, Wilson. SAMBA reunites The Intouchables’ acclaimed directing duo, Olivier Nakache and Eric Toledano, with award-winning actor Omar Sy in a richly entertaining chronicle of an undocumented kitchen worker battling deportation from his adopted home in Paris. Samba – Film Review. She breaks all of those rules in the first meeting. Be the first to contribute! A bumbling romance develops between Samba and Alice. Set during the Sierra Leone Civil War in 1999, the film shows a country torn apart by the struggle between government soldiers and rebel forces. It stars William Ash, Keri Russell and Brian Cox ... he'll take Samba lessons, in the hope that dancing like a South American will help him play like a South American. Movie Review – Pelé (2021) February 19, 2021 by Matt Rodgers. I'm leaving! ... Mark Kermode, Observer film critic @KermodeMovie. Samba Cissé (Sy), a migrant from Senegal to France, works as a dish washer in a hotel. His luck finally runs out and he now faces deportation. Such a dichotomy is evident from the film’s Goodfellas-style opening shot, which begins with a showstopping wedding celebration before tracking back to the kitchen, where Samba … It’s an appealing and gentle romance against the backdrop of Samba’s struggles to make a better life for himself. With the help of a businesswoman (Charlotte Gainsbourg), he fights to stay in France. Film Review: ‘Samba’ A milestone in big-budget French cinema, Eric Toledano and Olivier Nakache's latest leverages Omar Sy's appeal to bring immigration struggles into the mainstream. Some viewers may find this jarring or offensive, and it doesn't work a lot of the time, especially when the film attempts to address the despair experienced by law-abiding immigrants just trying to make enough money to send home. When Samba is released from the detention center, he does so with an order to leave France immediately. In a world filled with immigrants and refugees who are continually on the move, seeking better lives, "Samba" is a gentle revelation of what it means to be human. Wilson is an enthusiastic ladies' man, causing the more subtle Samba to roll his eyes behind his friend's back. Film Synopsis S amba is a Senegalese immigrant man who has been living in France for ten years, surviving on odd jobs as he somehow manages to avoid the authorities. There are comedic moments: a montage of the chaos at a local immigrant social center, the language barriers, the harassed workers, the long lines, the frustration of red tape. Just click the "Edit page" button at the bottom of the page or learn more in the Synopsis submission guide. ... Mad About Mambo is a 2000 romantic comedy film written and directed by John Forte. "Samba" doesn't quite work, but the parts of it that do work are due to Sy (with a little help from Rahim). | Sun 3 May 2015 03.00 EDT. The main character Samba (Omar Sy) is a Senegalese dishwasher threatened with deportation. An actor has to just have it and Omar Sy has it. You know it when you see it; it can't be counterfeited. He's funny (without straining for jokes), he's truthful, he's vulnerable, he's strong. And ogling at the gorgeous body of an immigrant while he's behind bars is pretty gross in a bald-faced way. Its tone becomes muddled as it turns extremely episodic, alternating between sequences of uproarious comedy, romantic warmth, and occasional sober commentary on the inane bureaucracy foiling hopeful immigrants. They work construction, they wash windows. (There's a great moment in Albert Maysles' final film "In Transit": two strangers have struck up a conversation on a long-distance train ride. Alice is on break from her heavy-duty corporate job. The film opens with a long single shot, moving from an elaborate party in a luxurious hotel through the hallways, through the bustling kitchen, and finally into the back room, where we find Samba and others, washing dishes. One needs only to watch his performance in "Samba" to see Sy's old-school natural star power in its purest form. Both struggle to get out of their dead-end lives. One of them describes a friend who changed his life because he was "in transition" and the guy across the aisle almost laughs out loud. Samba gets odd jobs with his best pal, an immigrant from Brazil named Wilson (the fantastic Tahar Rahim). Samba migrated to France ten years ago from Senegal, and has since been plugging away at various lowly jobs. Samba's willing to do whatever it takes to get working papers, while Alice tries to get her life back on track until fate draws them together. The shot takes us from a world that is 98% white to a room where everyone is black: a visual choice that tells the story clearer than any language could. "Samba" (2014 release from France; 115 min.) 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. There's a teasing honest energy between the two men. It looks like we don't have a Synopsis for this title yet. While watching the latest Review: ‘Samba,’ About the Travails of an Illegal Immigrant in France. Samba opens at a swanky high-class party in which the camera, in one impressive take, pulls back from the decadence, winds through bustling corridors and settles on Samba … 1965. Taglines I'm leaving!" But lots of actors are called "the hottest new" this or that and their acting doesn't justify the hype. One of the reasons the love story is successful (to whatever degree it is) is because it is not presented as "the greatest love the world has ever known" or "a sweeping epic romance." A paraplegic marine dispatched to the moon Pandora on a unique mission becomes torn between following his orders and protecting the world he feels is his home. Synopsis. "Samba" (the latest by "Intouchables" writing-directing team Olivier Nakache and Eric Toledano) is a bizarre, uneven, and strangely charming movie about the bureaucratic nightmare that is illegal immigration in France (and elsewhere, of course, but this is a French story). He has plans for the future, which are derailed when it is discovered his residency papers are not in order. Synopsis. He's released after being told to leave France. She dumps a veritable pharmacy out onto the table and hands some over. Alice is a senior executive who has recently undergone a burn-out. The stakes could not be higher for him, but he utilizes his charm and smarts and sense of the absurd in order to make it through the day. The heroine is a high-velocity Beverly Hills lawyer named Rita ( Michelle Pfeiffer ), who takes Sam's case on a pro bono basis, to prove to the other people in her office that she's not a selfish bitch. Their star-status is a matter of targeted publicity and orchestrated hyperbole. Chemistry? The scene feels "caught" as opposed to "acted," the behavior fresh and spontaneous, the interactions natural. He says that only rich people can afford to be "in transition," the rest of us are too busy for that nonsense.) "Samba" is two stories shoehorned into one: a very serious topic handled in a slapstick way. Alice is assigned to handle Samba's case. As the immigrant aspiring chef and the burned-out corporate executive tentatively explore an unexpected bond, they inspire each other to Powered by JustWatch. Samba's willing to do whatever it takes to get working papers, while Alice tries to get her life back on track until fate draws them together. plot summary The two young brothers Zach and Gray visit their aunt Claire, who also happens to be a manager at Jurassic World , which is a big â ¦ Netflix's feathery, feel-good movie about women's beauty standards is closer to a coming-of-age story than a romantic comedy. | brings the story of Samba Cissé. This article consists almost entirely of a plot summary. That's my plane! Sheila O'Malley received a BFA in Theatre from the University of Rhode Island and a Master's in Acting from the Actors Studio MFA Program. Samba Review By Rich Cline Some very big themes are given space to breathe in this remarkably naturalistic drama, which is livened up by terrific central performances from … Summary: When Samba (Omar Sy) is suddenly ordered to leave France, he enlists the help of Alice (Charlotte Gainsbourg), an emotionally vulnerable immigration advocate with little experience but plenty of heart. Some of the scrapes they get into (and there are many) could be subtitled "The Kooky Adventures of Two Charming Handsome Immigrants" and a little of this goes a long way. There's that indefinable essence stars have, a charisma, an ease, a beauty palpable to the camera, and an ability to let an audience into their inner lives. In the spring of 1990, Christopher McCandless obtains his undergraduate degree from Emory. Samba review – upbeat French comedy drama. There's a wonderful scene after a party at the local immigrant center, where everyone drinks wine and talks about their hopes and dreams for the future. Synopsis. Samba migrated to France ten years ago from Senegal, and has since been plugging away at various lowly jobs. It is based on the play Orfeu da Conceição by Vinicius de Moraes , which is itself an adaptation of the Greek legend of Orpheus and Eurydice , set in the modern context of a favela in Rio de Janeiro during Carnaval . After the end of segregation Dr. Martin Luther King receives Nobel Prize amidst the still heated south of the USA, with the then-recent church bombing that claimed five little girls' lives . Reviewed by Damien Straker on April 1st, 2015 Transmission presents a film by Olivier Nakache and Eric Toledano Produced by Nicolas Duval-Adassovsky, Laurent Zeitoun, Yann Zenou Screenplay by Olivier Nakache and Eric Toledano, based on Samba pour la France by Delphine Coulin Starring Omar Sy, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Tahar Rahim and Izïa Higelin Last modified on Wed 21 Mar 2018 20.14 EDT. It's an explosive topic, with multiple layers of complexity and ugliness (xenophobia, racism), all of which is … Read her answers to our Movie Love Questionnaire here.