Tropic of Violence (2022) Tropique de la violence

Director: Manuel Schapira
Stars: Gilles-Alane Ngalamou Hippocrate, Céline Sallette, Dali Benssalah

Archipelago of Mayotte, French overseas department, Indian Ocean. After being left alone in the world, Moïse, a boy feared by the supercilious locals because of his light eyes, joins a slum gang to survive.

It takes place in Mayotte, a French department in Indian Ocean, between Madagascar and Comorres island. It is a poignant story of an abandoned Black child, adopted by a White nurse, a thirty years old woman who suddenly dies because of a brain attack. So the lost child is then "adopted" by a gang of young punks lead by a ruthless young mobster. It is a radical depiction of poverty and survival in this French department where violence is everywhere and despair on rampage. It is gritty, gloomy, brutal, not for all audiences. It is realistic, without being didactic, that's its main strength. I definitely like this feature, despite its ankward direction. I also like this film for the scene where the gang leader tells about his own childhood, very unusual and surprising. You then can feel empathy for him, and understand why he is what he is.

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