As a Man

'I'm fed up being a black! I want to be a Senegalese,' says El Hadj (Mbengue), a student in Paris struggling with his dissertation, his visa situation and an existential dilemma concerning his possible future. He's like a 'pink flamingo, one leg in the water, one in the air,' and it's driving him insane, not to say spoiling his relationship with understanding glass restorer Myriam. First-time director Gomis mounts a sober, politically literate and quietly effective movie that's prone, occasionally, to explode, in perfectly judged and pertinent scenes, into anger and frustration, or melancholy and pathos. Mbengue, whether doing a 'rap' of disappointment in the bathroom, showing bemusement at his colleagues' advice or caressing his lover, gives a fine and moving performance.