I feared the worst before watching this movie. But it is neither a heavy-handed humanist manifesto, nor a simplistic anti-colonialist tract. It is a poetic rendering of a quest by a African man to save his son.
A word of caution for those allergic to subtitles: 80% of the dialog is in peul, a language that Omar Sy seems to speak fluently, despite being born In Trappes, France. This is also the only language his character speaks and understands, making his comprehension of the war extremely simplistic, despite his real intelligence and moral fibre.
The character's obsession is saving his son. That's why he enlisted in the first place. (His son was enrolled by force). But his son... Well watch the movie.
There are moments of pure poetry, the sound track adds a layer of weird to the already nightmarish and foreign environment.
Some people regret the movie isn't explicit enough in denouncing the evils of colonialism. Bei'g already convinced of that, I prefer not to be lectured at.
