A young woman wants to know about where she came from and find out more about her cultural background. She comes to live on a farm with this family and her trainer who she can't understand. Her trainer is a true African American who has lived and experienced life in Mali. At the end two people in her life die which is what makes the movie sad and unbelievable. The movie is funny like a comedy but also shows real life. These actors seem so realistic like almost as if there are hidden cameras and these people aren't acting but just living how they would normally. It's directed by a man who's made documentaries so that would explain it. I would recommend this movie to people who understand the uncomfortable nature of the film and don't complain about things that happen in the movie because....."That's life!" I give this movie a 7/10.
3 Reviews
Inspired moments of comedy, but crippled by disjointedness.
Abhaya27 August 2004
The liner notes to this movie lets the viewer in on the fact that a lot of it is riffed from the writer/director's own journals & experiences, and one can tell that she was trying to get across just how confusing it is to be young, black, and questioning your cultural heritage (and yourself), so it comes as somewhat of a disappointment that every time a bit of soul seemed to be imbued into the film, and you really started caring about the characters, she'd chop up the atmosphere & warmth she worked so hard to achieve with interspersed scenes of somewhat poorly dislodged & acted narrative. Sometimes voice-over narrative makes a movie spectacular, but other times it is used as a crutch, either to move the plot forward or to make up for a story that the writer didn't quite know how to SHOW the viewer -- or wasn't sure she wanted to trust the viewer to make out for him or herself.
Without getting too specific here, the ending jolts the viewer once again, first with a tease of a happy ending, then with the letdown of about the most depressing ending I've seen in a long time. Due to its rather sudden switch off, "Another Planet" leaves one with no sense of closure -- and in the process, seems to kill the sense of hope in the viewer that the heroine is striving to maintain in herself (for the narrator and lead actress of this film is, beyond all else, stubbornly stoic).
Of course, one might question whether the director herself simply felt insecure in her own abilities to get the story & feelings across -- it is, after all, the director's freshman film, and for that I will say it was ambitious. I can't imagine it would be easy, as well, to know you were basically going to be the first black Canadian woman to direct a movie. But uniqueness doesn't make an excellent film in & of itself.
But for all its foibles, there are, to be sure, inspired moments in this movie -- even a few scenes where I actually laughed out loud. At the very least, I can guarantee you that, after viewing this movie, you probably won't think about pig farming quite the same way again (that is, of course, if you've ever thought about pig farming, in France or otherwise, at all in the first place).
Without getting too specific here, the ending jolts the viewer once again, first with a tease of a happy ending, then with the letdown of about the most depressing ending I've seen in a long time. Due to its rather sudden switch off, "Another Planet" leaves one with no sense of closure -- and in the process, seems to kill the sense of hope in the viewer that the heroine is striving to maintain in herself (for the narrator and lead actress of this film is, beyond all else, stubbornly stoic).
Of course, one might question whether the director herself simply felt insecure in her own abilities to get the story & feelings across -- it is, after all, the director's freshman film, and for that I will say it was ambitious. I can't imagine it would be easy, as well, to know you were basically going to be the first black Canadian woman to direct a movie. But uniqueness doesn't make an excellent film in & of itself.
But for all its foibles, there are, to be sure, inspired moments in this movie -- even a few scenes where I actually laughed out loud. At the very least, I can guarantee you that, after viewing this movie, you probably won't think about pig farming quite the same way again (that is, of course, if you've ever thought about pig farming, in France or otherwise, at all in the first place).
An original and well-thought-out film; recommended
JefSmith1 May 2000
This is the story of a young black Canadian woman who wants to go to Africa, to connect with her heritage. She signs up for an exchange program, but before she is sent to Mali she has to go to a pig farm on Quebec, and work there for months in what she considers slavery. This well-thought-out film (the writer/director had a similar experience) addresses many dichotomies: black/white, male/female, African/Canadian, French/English, and the varying religions of the characters. There is a lot of humor, but it's a serious film with some very moving sequences. Some scenes fall flat (the actor playing her brother, in particular, varies between doing good work and bad), but overall it's a wonderful movie with an original setting.
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