Thursday 11 May 2017

Bienvenue à Marly-Gomont (Julien Rambaldi, 2016)

Rather perfunctorily titled The African Doctor for the English market, this is an account of the arrival of the family of the Congolese-French rapper Kamini in a village in the sticks where nary a black person has ever been seen. As you might expect, the tone is overwhelmingly comic, with the family slowly and surely converting the kneejerk racist locals into a community that venerates them, right down to the daughter becoming the star of the local boys' football team. So, it becomes very sugar-coated Hollywood and there is no trusting the narrative reliability at all (the musician wasn't even actually born before the family got there, just to begin with), but it is harmless fun all the same.

5/10


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