SALOUM DELIGHTS MIDNIGHT MADNESS

It has been quite the challenge for Midnight Madness programmer Peter Kuplowsky taking over the reigns of Colin Geddes. His selection of films were cut in half over the last two years. It was something that he was not expecting. It was relieving that he was able to programme this year’s winner of the Palmes d’Or from Cannes. Titane from director by Julia Ducournau became the opening film. But nobody saw the film Saloum from director Jean Luc Herbulot coming and its hyper intensity. It is still making headlines and creating a buzz in the film festival ciruit.

The multi-genre film follows three mercenaries back in 2003 during the Guinea-Bissau coup who are known as the Bangui Hyenas. Their group leader Chaka (Yann Gael), Rafa (Roger Sallah) and white hair dread Minuit (Mentor Ba) lay down steel during the coup d’etat. They do extract a Mexican drug lord (Renaud Farah) and take away his gold stash. Their mission afterwards is to bring him to the city of Dakar in Senegal. Unfortunately, their plane goes down and in the delta region of Saloum in which they have to pivot their plans. They bury the gold into the ground and have to find the footing to get the drug lord to the city in another way.

The trio end up at a retreat house hosted by Omar (Bruno Henry) who welcomes them to stay as long as they do their chores. Things start to get a little dicey when they meet Awa who is a mute. She knows their identity and threatens to blackmail them if they do not take them with her. Chaka begins to realize that he has a past with Omar which does not make their that more pleasing. A police chief then pays an unexpected visit to the retreat making things intense for the trio’s situation.

The film becomes quite the experience from this point on. With so much going on at this retreat, the audience does not know where this is actually going to head. It does lead to points of the unexpected. Herbulot brings Saloum from a real action thriller to a horror that is sprinkled with African folklore and mysticism. The film does focus on the primary story of Chaka’s relationship with Omar and their dark and mysterious past. But the side stories are all tied in flawlessy to the brink of chaos. The audience become really uncomfortable as they root on the trio to escape to their destination. The obstacles that are in their way will be difficult to surmount. There is more to it then just gunslinging.

What is fantastic about Herbulot’s vision for this film is that he uses the landscape to his advantage. It’s a place where a global audience that is not too familiar with making it more exotic. As tension rises among all the characters, you feel that Saloum heat taking affect on you. Gunslinging never looked so much fun and fresh as this spaghetti western takes place in the delta region of Saloum. So much praise for this selection as this year Midnight Madness that they are already calling for a Westernized remake. No need for that because this original is good as it gets and there is no reason for this to take place elsewhere. Carbon copies are just not the same.