"Bienvenue à Marly-Gomont" or "The African Doctor" is a French 95-minute movie from 2016. It premiered last summer in France already, but took almost a year to get here to Germany. It is directed by Julien Rambaldi and he is also among the three writers who worked on the script for this one. And with current events (refugee crisis, rise of nationalism in Europe and the USA), the subject is really relevant these days too, even if it plays several decades in the past. Actually with the French election several days ago and the two extremely different candidates, it could hardly be any more relevant now. This film depicts the life of an African who studied medicine in France and ends up as the village doctor in a little place in the countryside in the North of Paris. The film depicts the struggles from both sides. On the one hand we have the family, his wife and kids, who have their own struggles in adapting to life far far away from their home and also getting along with what is really xenophobia and what is nothing serious. On the other hand, there is the local townsfolk and most of them are really really biased when it comes to the new doctor. The consequence is that for the most part of the film, there are simply no patients, but there are huge phone bills as the wife keeps calling her relatives. Luckily thanks to the help of a farm worked and a pregnancy and birth at the right time things take a turn for the better at some point. But there are still obstacles like the law getting in the way of the protagonist's profession in the generic major conflict that every movie has towards the end.
I must say I enjoyed the film for the most part. There are strengths and weaknesses and the film needs a little while to get going, but all in all it is a rewarding watch. I liked for example how the movie did not depict the white guys in here as evil or truly racist, but they were just unable to cope with the new situation. I even think the bad guy, the one who wants to be major is not really racist (maybe his aide is), but just power hungry. And actually, the movie also refers the bad situation in the central character's home country and shows how cruel and ruthless people make it big there with the one guy at the dinner table. So the blacks also have bad seed among them. This reference also can be seen in the white bull scene, which was perhaps the best and most metaphoric moment of the entire movie because it was such a great parallel about the Black man and how the white beast perceives him. The bull wasn't evil, just confused and there was a good proverb at one point too about how people are scared of what they don't know. The second this fear vanishes is the moment his doctor's office has many people there.
I also think the comedy wasn't bad there, for example the gospel scene at the church or the two sick guys who come first to the doctor's office, even if the ending of this scene was of course pretty negative. So even if not all the intended funny scenes worked out properly, you can get some solid laughs while watching I believe. Other weaknesses include the football daughter part near the end, which was a bit weak and unrealistic in my opinion, even if the general idea of using football to make a bridge that helps against the prejudice was a nice one. I also think the attempts by the filmmakers to include shades in the characters, to keep them from being entirely good or evil, black or white (no pun intended), did not always work out to a satisfying degree. However, some of it did work out, so there is nothing so bad in this movie that it was a negative deal breaker. And the very ending was actually a bit on the touching side too and made me curious about the central character's life. Of course, real-life references always help. With this movie here, France showed Germany again how to make a quality comedy on a subject that is still important today. Shame on us we have to live with garbage like "Willkommen bei den Hartmanns" being the "best" out there. I recommend "Bienvenue à Marly-Gomont", certainly worth checking out.
I must say I enjoyed the film for the most part. There are strengths and weaknesses and the film needs a little while to get going, but all in all it is a rewarding watch. I liked for example how the movie did not depict the white guys in here as evil or truly racist, but they were just unable to cope with the new situation. I even think the bad guy, the one who wants to be major is not really racist (maybe his aide is), but just power hungry. And actually, the movie also refers the bad situation in the central character's home country and shows how cruel and ruthless people make it big there with the one guy at the dinner table. So the blacks also have bad seed among them. This reference also can be seen in the white bull scene, which was perhaps the best and most metaphoric moment of the entire movie because it was such a great parallel about the Black man and how the white beast perceives him. The bull wasn't evil, just confused and there was a good proverb at one point too about how people are scared of what they don't know. The second this fear vanishes is the moment his doctor's office has many people there.
I also think the comedy wasn't bad there, for example the gospel scene at the church or the two sick guys who come first to the doctor's office, even if the ending of this scene was of course pretty negative. So even if not all the intended funny scenes worked out properly, you can get some solid laughs while watching I believe. Other weaknesses include the football daughter part near the end, which was a bit weak and unrealistic in my opinion, even if the general idea of using football to make a bridge that helps against the prejudice was a nice one. I also think the attempts by the filmmakers to include shades in the characters, to keep them from being entirely good or evil, black or white (no pun intended), did not always work out to a satisfying degree. However, some of it did work out, so there is nothing so bad in this movie that it was a negative deal breaker. And the very ending was actually a bit on the touching side too and made me curious about the central character's life. Of course, real-life references always help. With this movie here, France showed Germany again how to make a quality comedy on a subject that is still important today. Shame on us we have to live with garbage like "Willkommen bei den Hartmanns" being the "best" out there. I recommend "Bienvenue à Marly-Gomont", certainly worth checking out.