MFFF REVIEW: WULU


8/10

Ladji is a young man who lives in Mali and is tired of his dead end driver job. When the owner’s son gets a promotion, Ladji decides that enough is enough and turns to drug trafficking. As it happens he has found his calling, quickly obtaining the reputation of a man who "does not miss anything". But the year is 2012 and a coup d'état is approaching. Will Ladji be able to make it on his own, and even if he is successful, can he live with himself after everything he has done?

First time director of Mali descent Daouda Coulibaly has an eye for detail and creates great suspense. No wonder Omar Sy produced this pulse pounding feature that makes you feel every bit of what it's like to live in the sunburnt Mali country. It is hard to tell if the director was drawing from the personal experience, but every frame feels alive and energetically charged.

The dialogue is minimal, but when it comes it hits the right spot.  As the protagonist, Ladji's purpose for doing the dangerous and, at times, despicable things is easy to define. Everything he does is for someone else and here comes the sympathy for the villain.


The main reason to watch WULU is its unpredictability. In the world where films are made by numbers (and sometimes there's nothing wrong with that) it is nice to feel a breath of fresh air, even if it's a hot, sticky, tension filled  one from Mali.

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