15/10/2014 - The new film by the duo behind Untouchable is being released amidst a deafening media frenzy and some question marks surrounding the ingredients of popular comedy

Samba by Olivier Nakache and Eric Toledano

Following its premiere at Toronto and its closure of the San Sebastian Film Festival, Samba [+see also:
trailer
film profile], the fifth feature by Olivier Nakache and Eric Toledano, is now hitting French theatres, distributed by Gaumont with a very high print run of 693 copies and accompanied by super-strength media coverage. After all, the huge worldwide box-office success of the duo’s previous opus, Untouchable [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] (which took 51 million admissions in 65 countries, including 19 million in France), has boosted expectations to unprecedented heights.

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True to their humanist style that blends comedy and drama, this time Nakache and Toledano tell the story of an encounter between a Senegalese man (Omar Sy) who has been living in France illegally for ten years and a senior executive (Charlotte Gainsbourg) trying to restore some kind of meaning to her life by doing volunteer work following a burn-out. By delving into the world of “these invisible workers” who are the undocumented immigrants, “we have put faces to the statistics”, highlights Toledano, who suggests that the overarching theme of the movie is “the relationship we have with work, from the lowest to the highest rung of the ladder”. Claiming to have been influenced by the Italian comedies of the 1960s and 1970s (Ettore Scola, Dino Risi, Mario Monicelli) as well as by English social comedies, the pair of filmmakers have again received the support of the overwhelming majority of French film critics, while the usual few detractors that they have still insist on taking issue with the movie’s “fairy tale-like” aspect – in other words, the ingredients that go into creating popular comedy. This is a debate that, while not entirely misguided in the broader context of French production, has nevertheless picked the wrong target with Toledano and Nakache, who bring a range of sensitive social issues to wider public attention.

Also coming out today are two films that were popular at Cannes this year: the Franco-Italian-Brazilian documentary The Salt of the Earth [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Wim Wenders and Juliano Ribeiro Salgado (winner of the Special Prize in Un Certain Regard on the Croisette and the Audience Award at San Sebastian - Le Pacte in 77 cinemas) and Geronimo [+see also:
film review
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film profile] by Tony Gatlif (read the review - Les Films du Losange in 90 theatres). European production is also represented by Lilting [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by British director Hong Khaou (Jour2Fête across 14 screens) and by two animated films: the Scandinavian title Beyond Beyond [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Esben Toft Jacobsen (revealed at Berlin in the Generation Kplus section - Gebeka Films in 99 cinemas) and the British movie The Boxtrolls [+see also:
trailer
making of
film profile] by Graham Annabale and Anthony Stacchi (presented out of competition at Venice – distributed by UPI France). Also of note are the Franco-American co-production White Bird in a Blizzard by Gregg Araki (distributed by Bac Films), the US title The Maze Runner by Wes Ball (co-produced by the UK) and three French documentaries: Les petits gars de la campagne by Arnaud Brugier, iG.A.R.I.! by Nicolas Réglat and Hautes terres by Marie-Pierre Brêtas.

(Translated from French)