Today I am samba

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Movie
German title Today I am samba
Original title samba
Country of production France
original language French
Publishing year 2014
length 118 minutes
Age rating FSK 6
JMK 6
Rod
Director Éric Toledano ,
Olivier Nakache
script Éric Toledano,
Olivier Nakache
production Nicolas Duval Adassovsky,
Yann Zenou,
Laurent Zeitoun
music Ludovico Einaudi
camera Stéphane Fontaine
cut Dorian Rigal-Ansous
occupation

Today I am Samba (Original title: Samba ) is a French comedy film by the directing duo Éric Toledano and Olivier Nakache from 2014. It was released in Germany on February 26, 2015.

action

The film begins with a dance show at a wedding party. The guests dance too and the wedding couple cuts the cake, which is then carried back into the kitchen by four waiters. There is hustle and bustle there, in the farthest corner three black people wash the dishes.

One of them is Samba, which for ten years as an immigrant without papers living in Paris. He is pursuing his big dream of one day working as a restaurant chef. However, he is arrested and ends up in custody . In this seemingly hopeless situation, Alice, a thin-skinned career woman who is now volunteering in refugee aid after a burnout , enters his life. Her colleague Manu advises her to keep her distance.

While in detention, Samba meets Jonas, who has come to France to marry Gracieuse, who hid him when he fled the police during a raid. Jonas asks Samba to look for her. He finds her later too, they end up in bed together and Samba feels like he has made a big mistake.

Alice picks up papers and clothes from Samba's uncle for the trial. At the trial, the judge found that Samba was working, but had only one relative - his uncle - in France. She refuses the application for naturalization , but Samba is still free, but has to leave French territory. He reappears at his uncle's and receives the well-meaning advice to dress more seriously with a briefcase and jacket, avoid large train stations and never travel without a ticket.

Samba works as a day laborer and at one of his jobs befriends Wilson, who claims to be Brazilian but is actually an Arab. While working as a window cleaner on a skyscraper, which demands a lot from a fear of heights , Wilson performs a strip-like dance at lofty heights that brings Samba to despair. During another job on scaffolding, they see police cars pull up below and flee over the roofs.

At a party that the refugee aid organization is holding on their premises, Wilson dances with Alice in a very exuberant way, as Samba says he cannot dance. Here Wilson met Manu and soon after he conquered her too. Alice and Samba also get closer when Alice wants to start working again in her company and does not dare to go inside. Samba can calm her down, gives her his lucky t-shirt as a talisman, and they say goodbye "non-classic" with a kiss. In the meeting room you can see that Alice is wearing this t-shirt.

Samba's uncle doesn't like the looming love affair at all, but it gives Samba new courage to face life again. For the evening Alice and Samba have arranged to meet in a bistro . When he steps in front of his uncle's apartment, Jonas has been waiting for him there. He has been recognized as a political refugee and has been given a passport that allows him to live in France for ten years. Although Alice is waiting for Samba, Jonas persuades him to have a drink and then take a few more steps. Because Samba is freezing, they swap their jackets. On a bridge, Jonas accuses Samba of having slept with Gracieuse and starts a fight. The police become aware of them and they both have to flee. At a lock, Samba can leave the police behind by jumping over the opening lock gates . Jonas jumps after, holds onto Samba and both sink into the dark water.

When Alice comes to Samba's uncle the next morning to ask what happened to Samba, the uncle reports that the police have notified him and that Samba's body was found in the river. But shortly afterwards Samba himself appears, because the dead person was Jonas, who had Samba's ID with him.

He and his uncle see no future for ourselves in France and want to take a bus back to Africa. Alice drives her sadly to the bus station in her car. They say goodbye and when Alice is back in the car, she finds the wallet with Jonas' ID. She walks back to the bus that is ready to leave and tries to persuade Samba to stay in France with Jonas' passport. It's no good, says Samba, he hardly knows what his real name is. All he has to do is think of a dance, Alice replies. And so he stays and finds a job as a cook - with the Garde républicaine .

background

Today I am Samba is, after Pretty Best Friends , the second collaboration between the directors Éric Toledano and Olivier Nakache and the actor Omar Sy . In France, the film reached over 2.5 million cinema-goers (as of November 2014).

Senator Film Verleih GmbH took over the distribution in Germany .

The book for the film, by Delphine Coulin , was published in Germany under the title “Samba for France” by Aufbau Verlag.

reception

Birgit Roschy from epd Film awarded 3 out of 5 stars. With Omar Sy as a samba, who once again acts as a popular figure, who lets heartbreaking melancholy shine through behind his carefree “charm”, “the well-rehearsed filmmaking team” succeeds, as in Fairly Best Friends , “loosening up the dreary reality through humor, without the plausibility of the Undermine history. "However, the film suffers from the" subplot about Alice's attempt to get her life back on track. "The" parallelization of her emotional crisis with Samba's existential hardships "seems" (to put it mildly) inappropriate. "

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Certificate of Release for Today I am Samba . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , February 2015 (PDF; test number: 149 748 K).
  2. ↑ Age rating for Today I am Samba . Youth Media Commission .
  3. ↑ Today I am Samba epd film , accessed April 22, 2015.