Samba: A World of Dancing Dreams to the Beats of Reality

Key is the role that chance plays in changing the courses of our lives, especially
when we get to know other people and create small circles of different relationships.
Then, it is not so long before these circles start to intermingle and turn into strong
bonds. Threads of life and destiny are woven, between whats good and whats bad,
fluctuating between experiencing and continuing to live. Eventually, as the years go
on, we shall see all these events being portrayed in a highly detailed piece of art.

Samba is a 2014 French movie that makes you feel this assimilation and that game of fates which
controls our destinies without us knowing. The movie, starring Omar Sy, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Tahar
Rahim, and Iza Higelin, tells a human interest story that can take place at any time and in any place
where salvation that every human is looking for can be attained.

Meanings and Destinies

Experiences can be repeated across time and space while humanity is still the same. And between a
white and black, an eastern and a western, stories are written. This is a story about Samba, an
African illegal immigrant who meets Alice, a French lady, who shares him the same way. They both
find refuge in each other despite their grotesque encounter having taken place in a detention center
for illegal immigrants.

After having spent ten years inside the French borders aiming at achieving his dreams away from the
trap of unemployment in Senegal, he is, however, still trapped inside the French borders where he
cannot feel neither reassurance nor his being as a human. France is where there is all the chasing
and running from the police who will deport him outside the French territory and order him to go back
home where his family is waiting for the very few money that Samba sends. He never felt safe except
through Alice, that lady who suffers from psychological disturbances due to the pressures of a
materialistic life. Pressures that drove her into recklessness.

Turning Points

However, as its said every cloud has its silver lining; Alice has been through a burn-out due to the
monotony of her life and thats why she had to work in a counseling center for immigrants despite her
feeling of loss since she became no longer able to live the normal life she used to live. The same
applies to Samba; if he hadnt been arrested he wouldnt have met Alice. Thats how we find the film
dependent on the simple meanings of life such as coincidences that shape destinies.

Throughout the films storyline, written by the French director and writer Delphine Coulin, the film
raises a variety of ideas and meanings. First of these meanings is the concept of immigration for
which people escape poverty and helplessness, dreaming of a luxurious life full of successes. The
film, however, tackles immigration in a completely different way for it defines it in terms of immigrating
to a person rather than a place.
 Samba relentlessly kept seeking for success, living in peace, and perhaps saving some money. He,
however, fails at achieving these simple dreams. Yet, he succeeds at finding the perfect match for
him, a person who could save him from his unceasing misery. Thats why Samba fought for survival!
Though the life he was after was not one that most people enjoyed. What he was fighting for is a real
life that guarantees him the meanings of love and passion with a person who, for him, was life itself.

The film also presents some other concepts such as trying to disguise, to escape, and to live without
a real identity hoping for deliverance from life. And for this to happen, one fakes his identity, forgets
himself, and hides his own personality by adopting others.

Laughter out of Tragedy

Directors Oliver Nakache and Eric Toledano crafted the movie as a comedy while the content itself is
tragic. For it portrays the tragedy of immigrants who flee their homes going after their dreams to find
themselves living the cruelty of the awful reality.

The comedy in this movie relies on the succession of situations and the laughter taking place inside
such a tragedy. The two directors intended not to overwhelm the audience with this tragedy so that
the movie wont be fraught with it. There is also Wilson, Sambas Algerian friend, who claims to be
from South America in favor of luring girls and providing for himself better opportunities for work and
living. And there is Manu, Alices reckless friend who does everything in rush.

In about two hours, the movie takes the viewer to a whole new different world about the dystopia that
immigrants suffer from. The viewer does not even get to feel that the movie has ended because of
the movies quick tempo.

Harmony plays another great role in keeping viewers watching; the succession of events and the
good storytelling besides using different techniques of montage helped the viewers switch between
frames without getting bored or moving their eyes away from the screen.

The spontaneity of the actors and actresses also helped in bringing down the house with regard to
the consistency with the movie. They were able to unify with their characters in such a way that made
the viewers more keen on staying longer with these characters and to feel that they are close to
them, that they are related to them.

Omary Sy plays the role of a simple young man who, despite his huge body, is kind-hearted and
cares for the feelings of others. While Charlotte Gainsbourg, who is famous for participating in the
two-part erotic-drama Nymphomaniac, plays a more simple role away from plain eroticism. For she
was able to show the other side of her acting by playing a psychologically-disturbed character who is
trying to get rid of the state of being disordered and persistently stressed.

Tahar Rahim, a supporting actor, plays a familiar character in immigration. Someone who tries to
facilitates his own affairs and help others in a way that is beneficial for him. While Iza Higelin plays a
simple French girl who cares for her study; however, she gets attracted to the fake-Brazilian guy,
Wilson.

Divided into songs and soft calm melodies, the music of this movie which was composed by
Ludovico Einaudi, takes you to another world. Some regions in this world will bring you hope while
others will refresh you and fill you with life.

Moving from music to cinematography where Stphane Fontaine, the movie cinematographer, used
balanced frames that bridge the distance between the viewer and the movie characters, surrounding
these characters in other times, which changes the way the story and the plot are being tackled.

In 2015, Iza Higelin was nominated for Best Supporting Actress in Csar Awards, presented by
Acadmie des Arts et Techniques du Cinma, and Charlotte Gainsbourg was nominated for Best
Actress in Lumire festival for their participation in Samba.

In the ending scene, we see the camera slowly moving away from Samba who started a new life with
a new variable; namely, love. Love which wasnt just for Alice, but for life and its all meanings and
aesthetics which he lost in the previous decades, coining a new meaning for immigration; that is,
immigration to dreams.