Fest Track On Sirk TV Film Review: SALOUM [Toronto International Film Festival 2021 - Virtual]
The idea of loss but also of formation is a central idea in "Saloum" [Midnight Madness]. At its heart is a story about family, one that was brought together because of necessity of protection. Chaka, after escaping a coup in the Congo in 2003 as part of a mercenary trio, ends up making his way to a village in Saloum along the coast. The main reason his compatriots think is that it is a stop on their way to becoming rich because of the gold and drugs they just heisted. The sway of the movies moves between aspects of a would-be "Walking Dead" to "Lost" to a guerilla gangster flick. However, it keys into a mythology, at least in North Africa, where the texture of locusts and parasites can run rampant but also local witchcraft and lore that influences the inhabitants' behavior and beliefs. Chaka's two compatriots are bad asses in their own way but the way writer/director Jean Luc Herbulot draws them is undeniably textured and educated in a beautiful way across the board without lessening their danger.
Whether it be Minuit (Mentor Ba) as a modern day sorcerer/shaman who looks like something out of "The Matrix" to Rafa (Roger Sallah), cool and collected who wears Versace shoes but quotes poetry as a means of warfare between hoisting a machete and swigging Jack Daniels. Most of the beginning notes sets this up but the most engaging elements, like something out of "Temple Of Doom", is the dinner conversations because of their multiple layers including sign language which is integral to another character Awa who knows secrets as well. The horror/supernatural twist is understood and works in context but it serves mainly to really underline the characterizations that speak to larger themes of fear, abandonment, claustrophobia and ultimately drowning which the verses at the beginning and end of the film make abundantly clear. The landscapes are unique and individual from deserts to seaside communities giving some singularly beautiful and yet broiling view od the Senegal region. The images give a crisp, sun drenched and yet barren and sometimes bleak canvas against which this story of escape and yet condemnation reverberates. B
By Tim Wassberg
