Little Senegal | Director Rachid Bouchareb | Arabic, French, Wolof, English subtitled

An entertaining commentary on African/African-American relations in USA. Sotigui Kouyate and Sharon Hope are excellent. Gritty street scenes in Harlem look real.

I am a French teacher who buys movies appropriate for high school students. This is not one of them. Yes, it is charming, but there is a sexual scene which is not appropriate, and the plot just progresses very slowly, too slow to keep students' attention. The only part that would be worth showing to students would be the beginning, when they visit the slave headquarters where the slaves departed from Senegal, then the places they landed in South and North Carolina. Beyond that, it is not very historically oriented.

Little Senegal is a bold and stunning tale directed by Academy-Award nominee Rachid Bouchareb, about Alloune (Sotigui Kouyate), an elderly African museum tour guide, researching his genealogy in hopes to find his relatives that were taken from his village as slaves to the United States during the 1800's. Although released in France in 2001, Little Senegal is very relevant in 2011. Little Senegal is being distributed in the United States for the first time and particularly when a bi-racial President has been elected.The film begins with French dialogue and English subtitles as Alloune explains to an audience how African slaves were bound by heavy chains and shackles. Alloune continues by showing illustrations of rebellious slaves who were hung at their waists (instead of their necks) which lead to a slower dramatic death, a tactic used by slavemasters to deter other slaves from upheaval. With years of book and folk knowledge of slave life, Alloune is naïve to the perils of modern life in the New World.Alloune travels to Little Senegal of Harlem, New York, and meets his frustrated nephew, Hassan (Karim Koussein Traore), a cab driver. Hassan admonishes Alloune that searching for his African-American relative is fruitless because, "African-Americans think Africans are too black" and "are monkeys". Hassan introduces Alloune to his live-in African girlfriend Biram (Adia Diarra), explaining that cohabitation is the American way to pay costly living expenses. Biram is taking English classes secretly but is treated like a love slave by Hassan. In one scene, Alloune walks in on Hassan beating Biram with a belt and must pull Hassan off her.Alloune also meets Hassan's guy roommate, Karim. Karim is planning to enter a paper marriage with an African-American female cab dispatcher, Amaralis (Adetora Makinde), for citizenship. The film shows the tensions between Karim (Roschdy Zem) and Amaralis (Adetoro Makinde) as they mix business (marriage in exchange for money) with pleasure (having intimate sexual relations).Alloune quickly discovers hostile American race relations. First, Alloune observes that yellow taxicabs will not stop for Blacks. Second, Alloune watches night after night television news stories of police brutality against Blacks. Third, Hassan's apartment is robbed of everything coincidentally after Alloune brings an African-American guest over to visit.Alloune meets and becomes fond of his long lost relative, Ida (Sharon Hope), an older woman faced with seeing her pregnant granddaughter Eileen (Malaaika Lacario) ruined by the mean streets of New York. Ida lives in a deteriorating brownstone and earns a meager living from her small business, Robinson's Candy Store. She hires Alloune to be a security guard for her store but one may wonder if she is buying companionship. Ida is indifferent towards Alloune's prodding that she learns more about her ancestry. Ida declares, "I just want to know what I'm going to buy myself for dinner". When Alloune asserts that Ida would never be alone in Africa, Ida retorts, "If things were better in Africa, you probably wouldn't be over here".In the end, Alloune voyages back to Africa to properly bury Hassan, who is found dead after a fatal confrontation with African-Americans. Ida is no longer physically alone now that she has both her granddaughter and great-granddaughter to care for. Karim starts over with Amaralis promising more than a paper marriage.There is nothing shallow about Little Senegal. It keenly explodes with pain, tragedy and sorrow. Engaging and thoughtful, the film confronts several `elephants in the room' such as racism, prejudice, bias, abuse of every kind, stigma, disparity and injustice to name a few. Little Senegal leaves much food for thought and it may take a day or so to come down from its intellectual high.

I wonder why there isn't yet a Region1 release of this movie because this is one of the most touching movies I've seen in a while.An old man works at the little museum on the Isle of Gorée near Dakar from which in the past many thousands of slaves were shipped. For many years he has been going through the archive records. When he discovers that one of his ancestors was shipped off to the USA, he decides to make the trip there to see whether his ancestor survived the journey and whether he may have distant relatives there. At the same time he wants to visit his cousin in NY who is a recent immigrant.The juxtaposition between the African expectations of life in the USA (or Europe), a dream of nearly every young man I've encountered in Senegal, and the actual experience of living there, is just one element of this fascinating movie.I recommend this movie to anyone; it touches on an important subject and it is beautifully shot.

I really enjoyed this film. The main character travels to the US looking for history and roots and ends up with present day’s challenges which he handles in his own way.

The actors are great. The film gives an insight into the life of Black Africans and Afroamericans in the US. Besides being entertaining this is the film for people which are interested in this or want to know more about this conflict.

The actors are great in this movie and it shows with what kind of prejudice black Africans are received by Afroamericans in the US, as well as giving a small insight into the life of Africans and Afroamericans in the US ,in particular in New York. I can only recommend it for people that are interested in knowing more about these conflicts.

I really enjoyed this film. The main character travels to the US looking for history and roots and ends up with present day's challenges which he handles in his own way.

Didn't enjoy this film.Poorly acted in parts and quite slow . Senegal produces some great films, but this is not one of them.

Super, j'adore! impression très positive d'autant plus que c'est un bon film, conforme à la description. Je le recommande vivement !