The immigrant character, Paul Musuamba, is pretty extreme but incarnates the inherent contradiction of the loss of one’s roots, to the point of madness even. « The fruits of exile are bitter », recalls the director in his rare voice-over incursions. Here, this bitterness has a name: the fear of losing oneself. It’s not just a question of a loss of the values acquired in childhood, but a loss of the self. He desperately and uncompromisingly clings to his father’s precepts, refusing to change to fit his new environment, unaware that Africa itself is changing and that his refusal to integrate will not save him from being out of touch when he returns home. Rather than maintaining the distance and contempt of a judgement, Mweze approaches Paul as humanly as possible, often letting him speak out, filming him at work where he is a wonderful old people’s nurse. It is this respect that gives the film its force. Paul is no longer just a « case », but the potential in each and every one of us. His madness is the danger that prowls when emigration is experienced simply as a transit against which to protect oneself.
///Article N° : 5637
