I have two other titles that I have reviews for separately on here for the film festival.
Please look for
Lucky Star & Black Dog
Fiction - 84 min - 2023 - Senegal/Belgium/France/Rwanda French, Wolof w English subtitles
This movie works in so many different ways, there's comedy, romance, action, and drama, even a little political uproar, and it's all done with a certain style.
On top of all that is a story with so much empathy running through it, it's hard not to get some on you, and pass it along to someone else.
Idrissa(Charles Auguste Koutou), has lost his job and is reluctant to let his wife, Viviane (Oumy Ndeye Mbaye), provide for the family, she has her own clinic in town and tries to assure Idrissa that it's ok for her to look after the household for a while until he finds work.
Meanwhile, their daughter, Aminata (Oumou Ndeye Kaltoum Ndiaye) needs a camera and a laptop for her schoolwork. Not telling her parents that she and a group of fellow students are planning a protest and she is filming it, etc. The film doesn't go much further than a few scenes of the students.
With everything going on in the movie, I thought it was going to lose itself, but in fact, it found me, and it is easily one of my favorite films of the year.
Quite often when we watch & listen to those around us, we can learn many things that we might have not known before. With The Chef & the Daruma, we get such teachings. I am not a fan of sushi, but this man Hidekazu Tojo, is credited as the man who invented the California roll. With that a great history of teaching many of the people who have come through his restaurant in Vancouver, BC, TOJOs. One of the most respected Japanese restaurants in North America.
Now in his 70s, he still shows up at work daily and has a great work ethic.
I also first heard of The Daruma through this documentary, and I am quite interested in this doll now.
I found this film to be very informative and a great look at a man who believes in hard work and good fortune.
(Daruma dolls are believed to make wishes come true and are often used as lucky charms. They are also seen as a talisman to ward off evil and bring good fortune. The doll's shape is meant to symbolize perseverance and the ability to get back up in the face of adversity.)-Google
Another way of life that I know nothing about, is that of a shepherd.
While the story is nothing new here, a young man wants to leave the hustle & bustle of the big city and leave for a smaller, possibly simpler life.
Set in the French Alps, the cinematography is one of the best things about the film,
and the score is quite good too.
Where it has its strengths, it also could have easily been just a short film, it often lags and is a real slow-burning movie.
I found it interesting to find out after watching the film and doing a bit of research on it that it is adapted from a semi-autobiographical novel by Mathyas Lefebure.
The takeaway for me is that I have learned something new again,
that is the ability to get a flock of sheep to follow you across
many miles of road & mountains, even in a terrible storm.
At first, I thought it was an interesting look at a different way of life that is not often in the movies, that changed around a half hour or so in.
.jfif)
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