![]() ![]() There is no need to spoil what happens at the end of Emma’s time in the D.R., but it’s worth pointing out the way Herrera and Albrecht push audiences not out of the center and into the margin, but force them to rethink such reductive rhetoric. There’s a shot while Cuki is at a barbershop getting a haircut that’s so unusual and so obviously designed to stress the young boy’s fractured relationship with the masculinity such a space conjures up that it immediately made me wish I could have paused the projection to better relish in its beauty.īut perhaps what’s most transcendent about this gem of a collaborative project (Herrera co-wrote the film with Albrecht) is its epilogue. It’s no surprise to find Herrera citing Barry Jenkins as an inspiration, as the affectionate melancholy that runs through “Bantú Mama” will feel familiar to anyone who’s admired the sun-dappled and blue-hued worlds the “Moonlight” director has captured on film. There’s no ethnography here nor an intrusive attempt to frame these images for those who’d only encounter them on the big screen. Instead of glamorizing, the helmer fixes her attention on the visual and aural poetry that can be found in these spaces: lingering scenes of young men on bikes, of a boy swimming underwater or even of a girl admiring her head wrap in the mirror are tinged with loving affection. ![]() Alongside cinematographer Sebastián Cabrera Chelin, Herrera has created a vision of the Dominican Republic’s most dangerous neighborhoods that is as lyrical as it is authentic. Herrera’s passion for still photography is palpable in every frame of the film, especially as Emma begins to see the environment around her with new eyes. have to navigate to keep their lives afloat (and their dad’s dealings in place). ![]() Such moments of grace are contrasted with the world $hulo and T.I.N.A. She also becomes a way for the three kids to learn more about the African diaspora, ever curious as they are about her Bantú lineage and even of the Maasai jumps Cuki once saw on television and which Emma gleefully demonstrates for them. They’ve each understood that to live in and from the streets requires a degree of know-how that demands they let go of whatever childhood they may once have dreamed of.Īs Cuki grows ever more attached to Emma, who herself struggles with never leaving the makeshift household that serves as her sanctuary, yearning as she does to go back to her home, the two form a family unit that prioritizes joy and hope over the despair that remains inescapable just outside their doors. (Scarlet Reyes) and brother $hulo (Arturo Perez) have a hardened air about them. Of the three, only the youngest, Cuki (Euris Javiel), still has an air of childish whimsy about him. That happens as soon as Emma is taken in by a trio of kids who live by themselves, since Mom’s dead and Dad’s in jail. In fact, as soon as the film moves out of its thriller-esque first act (with tense police interrogation scenes, a serendipitous car accident and a runaway chase), it settles quite nicely into a more relaxed sensibility. Except “Bantú Mama” is not set on perpetuating any stereotype-riddled stories about drug mules or crime in so-called “Third World” countries. At first glance, Ivan Herrera’s film appears to immerse us in a Caribbean story that feels all too familiar. But once she’s arrested for drug trafficking - just as she’s set to fly back, no less - Emma finds her entire world closing in on her, leaving her adrift in an alienating place. She has left her drab and gray home life in France behind, if ever so briefly. When Emmanuelle (Clarisse Albrecht) first arrives in the Dominican Republic, her world immediately finds a welcome peace and a splash of color. ![]()
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