Madu: le danseur de ballet nigérian

Although I came to this film with a bit of skepticism, it exceeded my expectations. This well-woven documentary has a lowish star rating on IMDb (less than 5.5), but I take this with a grain of salt because a limited number of people have rated it. This movie is beautifully filmed with a wonderfully subtle score. The story revolves around a talented, passionate Nigerian named Madu, who is 11 or 12 when the film starts. After a video of him dancing in the rain went viral, he was invited to attend a seven year program at Elmhurst, a well respected ballet school in Birmingham, England. As we watch his life unfold, there are ample poignant moments. Madu is close to his family, particularly his mom, who offers an abundance of emotional support. At the dance school, he learns how to cope with a few personal challenges, refine his skills, and create bonds with peers who can genuinely relate to him. I look forward to seeing Madu's ongoing success as he reaches new heights.

Now that I'm older, I can see all the things Madu isn't saying. Being given the chance to jump outside of your entire oppressive world and being the first to do so is very clearly expressed in these silent scenes. It shows the people we are lucky to meet who are nice, but still very foreign. The people who want to see you in their world, but are so far away from where you currently are you're only focused on making them happy. Then the people who see where you are and who you were that try to ease you forward into this new world, but already know the things that are hard to express. This movie shows them in as little words as there actually are to describe all these feelings.

Just seeing how and why it was hard to understand the opportunities given to you because you're going against the stream is what I was blown away by. It isn't enough to be given the opportunity. You need a Jiminy cricket to help you through it. The voice only you can hear that says to you, "wait a minute, that isn't truly the whole story , try again". He mostly hears "you'll be fine " a lot. Not because people don't care, but simply because they want you to be okay, but don't know how to say that without sounding like they don't really know the world you want to be in, but, just want you to be happy.

There's so much I wish I could convey about this film. I just know there are so many of us that can relate, but probably not with ballet, exactly.

I get it. It's hard to watch sometimes until I just remember that I'm just scared for Madu.

No question the boy is wonderful and deserves for his story to be told, but so many mixed feelings about this movie that unfortunately lacks depth.

From the first opening scenes it feels like a feel good diversity checkmark for a big studio. We don't learn much about the boy (how did he discover ballet and what did it take him to learn to dance? Is he doing well at his regular school? How will he cope with school program in the UK?) and his family (what do his parents do for a living? How did they support his passion? What is going on between two brothers?), the scenes are a pretty visual but narrative-wise they feel empty. Adapting to a whole new country should be overwhelming, especially in such a competitive environment with big dreams at stake but it looks fairy-talish and only somewhat challenging. And that brings the ethical question I couldn't get rid of while going through the extreme close-ups of the movie.

How do you film emotional scenes with such a child without prying too much, how far do you push to tell a story, and essentially how much can you communicate without asking questions and directing? How does a camera being there affect behavior of his peers and what is performed by people around him just because there is a camera following him everywhere?