Saloum
FANTASTIC FEST; AUSTIN, TEXAS – WINNER BEST DIRECTION
Director: Jean Luc Herbulot
Feature film, Senegal, France 2021, 83 min.
Language: French, Wolof with English subtitles
May 11 at 19:30 • Cinema: Cantate-Saal
Tickets
Spaghetti western meets Agatha Christie, meets Bird Box: The mercenary trio Chaka, Rafa and Minuit, known as Banguis’ Hyenas, kidnap the Mexican drug lord Felix during a coup in Guinea-Bissau. When the plane is shot during their escape, they have to make an emergency landing at the Sine Saloum Delta. The four find shelter with the friendly camp owner Omar. However, it becomes evident quickly that something is not right here.
In impressive images, Jean Luc Herbulot stages the story interwoven with African mythology. As the camp guests sit together for dinner in Miss Marple-fashion, the tension is almost palpable. Chaka too hides a secret… But his attempt to free himself from his past unwittingly wakes evil spirits.
| Directed by: | Jean Luc Herbulot | |
| Script: | Jean Luc Herbulot, Paméla Diop | |
| Production: | Paméla Diop, Jean Luc Herbulot | |
| Camera: | Gregory Corandi | |
| Edition: | Nicolas Desmaison, Alasdair McCulloch, Sébastien Prangère | |
| Music: | Reksider | |
| Cast: | Yann Gael, Evelyne Ily Juhen, Roger Sallah, Mentor Ba, Bruno Henry, Renaud Farah |
About the director
Jean Luc Herbulot was born in the Republic of Kongo. He studied multimedia project management and film editing in Paris, where he shot his first short film Vierge(s) in 2004. His first feature-length film Dealer premiered at the Fantasia Festival in Montreal and was the first French independent film to be bought by Netflix. Back on the African continent he created and shot the show Sakho & Mangane in 2019 in Dakar. Saloum is his newest feature film that premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival. It has already received prices at the Fantastic Fest 2021, a nomination at the international competition of the Internationalen Filmfestival Warschau and the audience award Altered States at the Vancouver International Film Festival 2021.
Press commentaries
“Tarantino in African: […] No film carries the word “cult” more insistently on its bloody forehead.” (Fantasy Filmfest)
“Genre cinema rarely feels as multifaceted as it does in Saloum. This may turn out to be the rare African film that enters the international mainstream, or, at the very least, achieves cult movie status.” (The Hollywood Reporter)
“Saloum acquires an unsettling folk horror-like ambience” (The Variety)
“Packing a huge amount of action and information into only 80 minutes, Saloum keeps its story and character colts firing throughout all the chaos.”
