Fatou la Malienne

Last night, this movie was on TV5, the French cable channel. I sort of half watched it at first, finding it mildly entertaining, kind of a window on what life must be like for Fatou, a young lady of African heritage living in Paris, caught between the culture and traditions of her immigrant parents and her own aspirations of becoming a hip London hairdresser. In a very subtle way, a young man from Mali is introduced, and he tries to sweep Fatou off her feet, using a traditional "French" approach. When that doesn't work, the young man resorts to more traditional means. That's when the movie suddenly stopped being lightly entertaining and became extremely interesting and provocative, to say the least. The movie has the feel of a low budget movie but that works well for it, often helping it along and giving it a "cinema verite" feel. This movie will be of particular interest to people who, like Fatou, are caught between multiple cultures.