Her most highly rated film,"patries" is perhaps not Carrion's most satisfying one ;it juggles two things at once and the fact that Seb is almost absent in the second half throws the film off balance .But not as much as her sprawling "le fils d'un roi" .
Yet ,on the conventional feel-good scene of the French cinema , it's still good value ;shot in stark black and white -except for the very last picture , which is a very good idea that makes sense-,it depicts the story of a friendship which stands in big danger of being ruined :Seb is a white boy who tries to make friends with the big boys of the neighborhood , black boys who consider him a sissy ; Pierre is a black boy from Cameroun who longs for the country he has left behind .
Pierre 's story is by far the most interesting; his family is proud of being in France -one more time seen as some kind of Eldorado ,which the country is not really
for emigrated people -,well integrated into the society .Unlike many emigrated people ,Pierre has a plan ,a dream :he wants to get back to his roots ,to create his own building firm in his own country ;although he's got no work in France ,the young man is no loafer :he goes out of his way to make his dream come true ,but the French Civil Service (represented by a social worker) turns a deaf ear to his laudable plea. The RSA (minimum welfare given to those who are not entitled to unemployment benefit) is charity to him and he's too proud to beg.
I'd tone things a bit for a loooong scene (one of Carron's vices : 'succint' is not in her vocabulary) with the mother's educated friend : the lines are too intellectual ,and it 's not convincing,as far as Pierre and his mom are concerned .The scene between the latter and the girl who asks for money to build a well in Africa rings truer.
Seb 's first scene is perhaps the best in the whole movie: he rides his bike ,with his dad on rack ;he depicts the place where they are to live as a marvelous paradise ,where flowers grow everywhere , where the houses are impressive with their pools ; the pictures contradict his words :it's a sad suburb ,but the viewer soon realizes the father is blind. But Seb's really good moments are few and far between afterwards ,except when he rides his scooter with his friend ,where these pictures have a soaring transcendence .
To end on one high note ,the director successfully shows Pierre's love for his African earth ,particularly when he plays the drum and he has visions of his late daddy ; this love is the same as that of the hero of "la morsure des dieux ".
