BLACK on screen tomorrow night

In the monthly film series African Perspectives, AfricAvenir Windhoek in cooperation with Studio 77 presents the Namibian premiere of BLACK by Pierre Laffargue.

The 115 minute movie was made in Senegal/France and released in 2008. It is in French with English subtitles and stars Rapper MC Jean Gab’1, Carole Karemera and Anton Yakolev.

BLACK is a film about a Diamond Heist in Dakar, Senegal.

A groovy 70s-style adaptation of Richard Strauss’ Also Sprach Zarathustra sets a funky tone for the opening of BLACK which moves briskly and efficiently from a slickly-shot “armoured car robbery gone bad” in Paris to a modern update of Shaft in Africa to a bastard offspring of Cat People and Ssssss. It’s gloriously lunatic.

When his Parisian armoured car holdup goes horribly wrong, our protagonist Senegalese-born Black needs to go underground. He’s a criminal and not necessarily a good one. News from his cousin in Senegal about a stash of uncut diamonds in a poorly guarded bank in Dakar hatches the plan to go on a “working vacation” that involves a little sightseeing and a lot of mayhem aiming at the heist of a lifetime.

As Black and his crew soon discover, Dakar has just as many nefarious criminals as any other major city; it’s just that the cons are different. They may be worldly wise to the ways of Paris, but they’re absolutely lost in Senegal. What Black doesn’t know is that the extremely valuable diamonds have attracted other interest.

French underground Hip- Hop MC Jean Gab’1, famed for his endless charisma, first debuted in the film District B-13. It shows tomorrow night at Studio 77 at 19:00. Entrance is N$30.

click to enlarge