Ideas for introducing the text and key themes

  • Invite students to share their initial reactions to the film, and invite comparisons with A Vol d’Oiseau in terms of narrative approach and style (with recognition of the distinctions between analysing a literary text and a film).
  • Show two clips from the start of the film that introduce each of the three main characters (Sophie, Abdoulaye and Thierno) and their various intercontinental trajectories:
    • Clip 1: 00:02:30 – 00:08:23
    • Clip 2: 00:10:00 – 12:50
  • Ask students to analyse these clips in terms of their aesthetics (mise-en-scene, camerawork, sound) and to consider how they represent motion, trajectory, and create connections between the three characters.
  • Discuss how each character and location is represented with a distinct cinematographic identity, in terms of shot type, framing, colour palette, and music. What do students note, and what are the effects of these aesthetic decisions?
  • Show two clips from the ending of the film and discuss:
    • Clip 3: 01:11:32 – 01:12:57
    • Clip 4: 01:14:45 – 01:18:00
  • Ask students to read the extracts from Paul Gilroy’s The Black Atlantic (1993) (Resource 3 – to follow) and discuss whether this concept is useful for understanding the crossings, trajectories and identity conflicts in the film – link to the historical context of slavery to be considered in more detail next session.

Secondary sources/additional reading

  • Bordwell, David and Kristin Thompson, eds (1997). Film Art: An Introduction Fifth Edition. New York: McGraw Hill.
  • Gilroy, Paul (1993). The Black Atlantic. London: Verso.
  • Naficy, Hamid (2001). An Accented Cinema: Exilic and Diasporic Filmmaking. Princeton: Princeton University Press.