Moi et mon blanc (2003)

User Rating:

7.3/10   

Director:

S. Pierre Yameogo

Writer:

S. Pierre Yameogo (writer)

Genre:

Comedy

Plot:

An African student stranded in Paris after losing his government grant discovers a bag of drugs and money while working as a parking garage attendant.

Plot Keywords:

Paris | Culture Clash | Parking Garage

Awards:

2 wins

Cast

Serge Bayala	...	Mamadi
Pierre-Loup Rajot	...	Franck
Anne Roussel	...	Prostituee Parking
Bruno Predebon	...	Dealer 1
Samuel Poirier	...	Dealer 2
Micheline Compaore	...	La lumière
Abdoulaye Komboudri	...	Sous couvert du bon Dieu
Antoine Herbez	...	Chef du parking
Stéphanie Lagarde	...	Lucie
Laetitia Gabrielli	...	Rosalie
Ray Lema	...	Souleymane (as Ansi Ray Lema)
Tom Novembre	...	Raoul
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Jean Camplan	...	René
Jean-Claude Crepeau	...	Directeur du Centre
Alain Debruyne	...	Membre du jury
Claude Delaugerre	...	Professuer Khan
Sylviane Goudal	...	La concierge
Sylvie Guignard	...	Monique
Françoise Moisset	...	Commère 2
Monique Muflarz	...	Commère 1

Also Known As:

Me and My White Man (literal English title)

Runtime:

Denmark:90 min (Copenhagen International Film Festival) | Switzerland:97 min

Country:

Burkina Faso | France

Language:

French

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Australia:M | Switzerland:12 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:12 (canton of Vaud)

Company:

Dunia Productions

A light-weight comedy exploring inter-cultural misconceptions

On the surface, this film appears to be just a light-weight, somewhat humorous and somewhat random story with no apparent direction. However, the main storyline is neither really the focus nor the point of the movie; a seemingly peripheral theme that occurs frequently throughout the movie is that of cultural misconceptions and stereotypes held by both Westerners about African culture and life, and vice versa. Although apparently a peripheral theme, this is in my opinion really the core of the movie, and the main storyline seems to be there almost as a vehicle to carry this theme.

The movie does not at all, however, give the impression of attempting to impose any moral message on the viewer: one gets more a feeling of an African movie writer/director, who loves his home country Burkina Faso, humbly and passively inviting the Western viewer to learn more about what life is really like, and what the people are really like, in his country (as distinctly opposed to the distorted and dystopian view one may obtain from television), and vice versa for the viewers in Burkina Faso and other African countries, who similarly often have their own distorted views of life in Europe.

This movie is enjoyable to watch if one views it merely as a kind of 'casual journey', enjoying the journey for what it is, without focusing on or asking about what the 'destination' is; this attitude itself is in some ways part of culture and life in many parts of Africa.