It's not every day I encounter a movie from Africa. When I have seen one, it often turns out to be quite strange. Crumbs is the weirdest one yet. Set in a post-apocalyptic Ethiopia, the story follows a disfigured man called Candy who tries to find a way to get aboard a huge spaceship which has continually hovered over the landscape for many years. There are signs that it seems to be reviving after being dormant for centuries. Candy is sent on a quest by a local witch to find a black Santa who will advise him of what he needs to do.
The synopsis is bizarre but the film is even stranger still. It is a little bit surreal and somewhat avant-garde, mainly on account of its obtuse nature. Nothing is spelt out particularly clearly but I do suspect that this is at least partially on account of people from this part of the world having very different inbuilt ways of expressing themselves compared to us in the West. But even with this in mind, I still think Crumbs is a fairly abstract film. There are interesting details to take in along the way such as the way that the precious items of this future are now our contemporary pop cultural things such as plastic toys and vinyl LPs, what we consider throwaway have now attained a high currency in this distant future. While celebrities from our time have attained godlike status, which in some respects they do nowadays but without the religion. So what does it all mean? No idea. But it was a bit different that much I can say for sure. It benefits from being from a part of the world with little cinematic output and having unusual locations to work with. It also has the manners to not let its experimental nature overstay its welcome with a brisk running time of 68 minutes. I can't say I necessarily enjoyed this one or got much out of it but I at least acknowledge its originality as something worthwhile.
