Souleymane Cisse Movies

A young man who has left the countryside to come to the city, earns his keep by pulling a little cart around, delivering small items for merchants and others. One day he helps the manager of a textile factory deliver some items to his home, and the wealthier man befriends him because he is from the same part of the countryside as he is. This puts him in a position to observe what happens next, for the manager is caught between his exploitative and cruel boss and the workers in the factory, and his sympathies lie with the workers. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

A man who has gone from the middle of nowhere to a big city finds a little bit of the city has installed itself in his home town in this gentle comedy drama from Malaysia. Twenty-something Betik (Zahiril Adzim) left the small town where he was born, dominated by a firm that grows and processes palms, to attend his father's funeral in Kuala Lumpur. Betik decided to stay in the city, but two years later circumstances bring him back home, where his mother Kak Ina (Mislina Mustaffa) runs a shabby karaoke bar. Kak Ina doesn't seem especially excited to see her son after two years, but she grudgingly gives him a job, shooting videos that accompany the sing-along tunes she plays for her customers every night. While scouting locations, Betik meets beautiful Anisah (Nadiyatul Nisaa), and he's immediately smitten with her. Betik isn't sure how to impress her, but he thinks he might be able to elevate himself to the level of local celebrity when chance leads him to cast himself in one of his own videos. Karaoke was the first feature film from writer and director Chris Chong Chan-fui. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

This African drama presents a political allegory about apartheid. It begins as a South African grandmother tells a story about how animals and humans once competed for control of the Earth. The film then moves into the story of young Nandi and her family who live under the repressive rule of the wicked whites. Nandi loses her family one tragic night when her father and brother are shot for walking on an Anglos-only beach. She in turn kills a cop and is forced to run for her life. She flees to the Ivory coast where she learns about the joys of life after apartheid. There she also meets Solofa who wants to marry her; she says yes, but only on the condition that he go with her on a humanitarian mission to her oppressed home village. Later, Nandi grows more concerned with her own needs and decides to abandon Solofa and leave along with a young Taureg girl whom Nandi uses as her "daughter." ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi