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Black

Directed by: Pierre Laffargue

Starring: MC Jean Gab’1, Carole Karemera

Synopsis:

An armed robber known only as “Black” is the sole survivor of a heist-gone-wrong in the centre of Paris and needs to lay low. Fortunately he gets a call from his cousin, a security guard for a bank in Senegal, telling him of a briefcase full of fat, uncut diamonds. Black puts a gang together and heads out to Senegal for what should be an easy score. Unfortunately, the presence of the diamonds has become an open secret, and a number of other, deadly factions are also targeting the briefcase

Review:

Black will probably be the most unpredictable film of the year. It gives you the usual heist set-up and then wildly changes direction, even taking on a hint of the supernatural in it’s final scenes. It’s reminiscent of the Stephen Dorff movie, Botched in that respect.

A rebel leader from a neighbouring country arrives at a bank in Senegal, and entrusts a briefcase full of uncut diamonds with the manager, informing him to keep things quiet. In a nice split-screen montage, we see how information about the briefcase spirals outwards – the manager tells his lover, she tells her hairdresser, she tells her husband etc. Eventually a lowly security guard makes a call to his cousin, Black…

Black and his crew arrive in Senegal, and first impressions of the place aren’t high. It’s clear there is a high poverty level and roads are virtually non-existent except for the centre of town. Black is certainly not impressed with the place and feels the job is a slam-dunk. The audience meanwhile knows different, as we have been introduced to other factions who are also making a play for the diamonds, including a manic Russian commander of a team of mercenaries, and his arms dealer, who is in collusion with the bank manager.

However, knowing all the pieces that are on the on the board doesn’t mean you know the outcome, and Black does an excellent job of defying your expectations as to the direction it’s heading in. There is a great montage of scenes where the film changes tack, which reminded me of the classic Simpsons episode where Mr Burns brings in a bunch of ringers to play on his baseball team, only for them all to meet unfortunate situations that prevent them from playing. A similar series of events befall the members of Black’s crew (including two of them falling for the old “hospital” scam), leaving him to pull off the heist virtually all on his own.

The action in Black is very solid, if not spectacular. The opening Paris heist is well handled, while the sequence where Black takes on the mercs to obtain the diamonds is very well presented so you know exactly what is going on. There is no silly shaky-cam work except for some interesting POV shots towards the end. The action really picks up though when Black crosses paths with a beautiful Interpol agent, who proves to be a lot tougher than Black is. The scenes of her and Black avoiding the mercs are the film’s action highpoint. Mention needs to be made of the excellent photography, especially the aforementioned scenes which are set at night. Something that also needs mentioning is the amazing soundtrack - nothing like the music found in the above trailer, rather a mix of 70’s funkadelic and African beats. It really gives Black it’s own individual flavour.

MC Jean Gab’1, who played a prominent role in B-13, makes a decent protagonist, reasonably quick-witted but prone to act like a kid at times. There’s a funny scene where Black is sneaking between some cars holding a pistol – his hands are so big the gun looks puny and fragile!

Verdict:

From Dusk til Dawn is the most extreme version of this type of film. However while that film smashed two different genres together so hard that the film abruptly slams on the brakes before heading off on it's tangent, Black is much more fluid in the way it ties it's genres together. MC Jean Gab'1 makes for a fun hero, but he is way over-shadowed by Carole Karemera, whom we should all be keeping an eye on in the future.

8 out of 10 (MikeOutWest)

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