Much recent African cinema has shifted from tales of village tradition and superstition to focus on the crippling poverty of isolated settlements and the need for menfolk to seek work abroad. Alain Gomis' uncompromising account of what awaits young Senegalese once they arrive in the former imperial capital of Paris succeeds in exposing the exploitation of the migratory labour force and the racism it has to endure.
But he also considers the ease with which consumer society can seduce and corrupt, and Djolof Mbengue - as a student whose clash with Immigration forces him to re-evaluate his relationship with white girlfriend Delphine Zingg and his fiancee and family back home - conveys the exiles' struggle to balance self-interested pragmatism with duty to their heritage.