Saloum (film) – Wikipedia

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2021 Senegalese-French film

Saloum
Saloum xlg.jpg

Theatrical film poster
Directed by Jean Luc Herbulot
Written by Jean Luc Herbulot
Pamela Diop
Produced by Pamela Diop
Starring Yann Gael
Cinematography Gregory Corandi
Edited by Nicolas Desmaison
Alasdair McCulloch
Sébastien Prangère
Music by Reksider

Production
companies

Lacmé
Rumble Fish Productions
Tableland Pictures

Release date
  • 30 September 2021 (2021-09-30) (TIFF)

(USA)

Running time

 84 minutes
Countries Senegal
France
Languages French
Wolof
Box office $5,078[1][2]

Saloum is a 2021 Senegalese crime horror-thriller film directed by Congolese director Jean Luc Herbulot and produced by Pamela Diop.[3] The film stars Yann Gael, Mentor Ba and Roger Sallah in the lead roles with Evelyne Ily Juhen, Bruno Henry, and Marielle Salmier in supporting roles.[4] The film revolves around Bangui’s Hyenas, an elite trio of mercenaries that extract a drug dealer and his bricks of gold amidst Guinea-Bissau’s coup d’état of 2003.[5][6]

The film had its international premiere in the Midnight Madness section at the 2021 Toronto International Film Festival on 30 September 2021.[7] The film received critical acclaim and was screened worldwide[8][9] and began streaming internationally on Shudder in September 2022.[10]

The film was met with positive reviews. Herbulot won the Award for the best director in the Next Wave section at the Fantastic Fest,[11] and the film won the Audience Award for most popular film in the Altered States program at the 2021 Vancouver International Film Festival.[12]

Mercenary group Bangui’s Hyenas are tasked with extracting a Mexican drug lord from Guinea-Bissau amid the 2003 coup d’état and taking him to Dakar. On route, a leak with the group’s airplane forces them to land in remote Sine-Saloum, where they must reckon with suspicious residents, difficult environmental conditions and supernatural events before they are able to depart.[10]

  • Yann Gael as Chaka
  • Roger Sallah as Rafa
  • Mentor Ba as Minuit
  • Evelyne Ily Juhen as Awa
  • Bruno Henry as Omar
  • Marielle Salmier as Sephora
  • Babacar Oualy as Salamane
  • Ndiaga Mbow as Souleymane
  • Cannabasse as Youce
  • Renaud Farah as Felix
  • Alvina Karamoko with voice

Reception[edit]

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 96% of 48 critics’ reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7.6/10. The website’s consensus reads, “Smart, dynamic, and fast-paced, Saloum mixes tones and genres into a tart, smoothly blended treat.”[13]

Jeanette Catsoulis reviewed the film positively in The New York Times, saying “The plot is ludicrously jam-packed, but the pace is fleet and the dialogue has wit and a carefree bounce”.[14] Richard Kuipers of Variety wrote that “[Saloum] freely mixes and marries the cinematic languages of spaghetti Westerns, samurai dramas and classic monster movies to tell an exciting and distinctly African story”.[15] Valerie Complex of Deadline Hollywood praised the film for its “supernatural horror elements”, which, according to him also contain “comedy and suspense”.[16] In Vulture, Roxana Hadadi praised the film’s cinematography, production and sound design and folklore elements, and said the film’s “only real disappointment is its visual effects, which once we see them aren’t quite as frightening as what Saloum accomplished through suggestion”.[10]

According to Meagan Navarro of Bloody Disgusting, the film’s “Spirituality, morality, mythology, and mysticism get thrown into a gritty crime thriller blender, culminating in a refreshingly unique type of genre-bender”.[17]

References[edit]

  1. ^ “Saloum (2022)“. Box Office Mojo. IMDb. Retrieved September 9, 2022.
  2. ^ “Saloum (2022)“. The Numbers. Nash Information Services, LLC. Retrieved September 9, 2022.
  3. ^ Scheck, Frank (21 September 2021). “‘Saloum’: Film Review: TIFF 2021″. The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 14 October 2021.
  4. ^ “Saloum”. Fantastic Fest. Retrieved 14 October 2021.
  5. ^ “Saloum”. TIFF. Retrieved 14 October 2021.
  6. ^ “‘Saloum’ Is A Kinetic, Genre-Bending Revenge Story [TIFF Review]”. theplaylist.net. Retrieved 14 October 2021.
  7. ^ “Saloum”. TIFF. Retrieved 14 October 2021.
  8. ^ “Saloum”. Cineuropa. Retrieved 14 October 2021.
  9. ^ Saveliev, Alex (30 September 2021). “Saloum: Film Threat”. Film Threat. Retrieved 14 October 2021.
  10. ^ a b c Hadadi, Roxana (2022-09-09). “What Hides in the Heart of Saloum”. Vulture. Retrieved 2022-10-04.
  11. ^ Stiff, Victor (17 September 2021). “TIFF 2021: Saloum Review”. That Shelf. Retrieved 14 October 2021.
  12. ^ Steve Newton, “Vancouver International Film Fest announces award winners”. The Georgia Straight, October 13, 2021.
  13. ^ “Saloum”. Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media. Retrieved 14 October 2021.
  14. ^ Catsoulis, Jeannette (2022-09-01). “‘Saloum’ Review: A Paranormal Showdown in the Desert”. The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2022-10-04.
  15. ^ Kuipers, Richard (15 September 2021). “‘Saloum’ Review: Genres Collide in a Lively Crime-Horror-Fantasy-Western Hybrid from Senegal”. Variety.
  16. ^ Complex, Valerie (14 September 2021). “Toronto Review: Midnight Madness Film ‘Saloum’“. Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved 14 October 2021.
  17. ^ Navarro, Meagan (17 September 2021). “Movies [TIFF Review] ‘Saloum’ Blends Crime Thriller with Supernatural Mysticism in Unpredictable Genre-Bender”. Bloody Disgusting. Retrieved 14 October 2021.

External links[edit]