Following its US Gala Screening Premiere during the 20th Annual African Diaspora International Film Festival, THE PIROGUE will now have its first US Theatrical Release at Film Forum starting on January 23, 2013.
Senegal, a West African nation on the Atlantic Ocean, was home to Africa's greatest movie-maker, Ousmane Sembene. Today, Moussa Tour� follows in the master's footsteps with this drama of 30 men (and one woman, a stowaway) who set out on an illegal 7-day voyage to Spain - making the perilous trip in a pirogue - a boat resembling a vastly oversized dinghy. While sharing a common desire to build a better future, these men hail from different ethnic and religious backgrounds. The story grows from a finely delineated mosaic of personalities - reactions to the journey's mounting danger - that span the emotional panoply of human experience. Tour�'s compelling tale says as much about the universal nature of courage and perfidy as it does about the economic realities faced by so many of the world's people. THE PIROGUE was featured in Cannes 2012, in the Un Certain Regard section.
SENEGAL / FRANCE * 2012 * 87 MINS.
IN FRENCH, WOLOF, AND AL PELAAR WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES * ARTMATTAN PRODUCTIONS
"A handsome work. News channels in Europe broadcast stories at least once a week about ill-fated crossings between African and 'the Old World'... (The film) counters cold statistics with a range of flesh-and-blood characters. (It) succeeds on the strengths of its nicely delineated characters and first-rate production values." - Jay Weissberg, Variety
"A colorful and compelling drama. The soundtrack (is) sprinkled with the pretty, sinewy, laidback sounds of Senegal, a nation rightly famous for its vibrant music scene. The divided psyche of a young generation of Africans torn between traditional values and the consumerist whirl of iPhones and satellite television is also nicely evoked, without heavy-handed First World moralizing." - Stephen Dalton, The Hollywood Reporter
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