By Tanya Batson, Staff ReporterDOLÉ IS a 'coming of age movie', even though the main characters are still boys when it ends. It is the kind of movie that makes the Francophone Film Festival, of which it is a part, worth celebrating. In large part, because it is a foreign film (as though all the other movies we watch are not foreign films), and additionally because it is in French, the movie would not ordinarily make it to local theatres. It is, however, a welcome break, especially if you have already seen Red Dragon and Barbershop.
Dôlé is a rather short movie, lasting only 79 minutes. Even so, it proves rather fun to watch, though it does not rank very high on the memorability scale. Nonetheless, the film won the Junior Grand Jury prize at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival, which points to the fact that it is a good film.
The movie, made in Gabon, Western Africa, chronicles a short period of time in the lives of four friends. You see the point from which they move from very petty crimes to larger ones. Their obsession money. Mired in poverty, they all have dreams of one day making it rich. The ways they will do so vary. While all of them rap together, only Baby Lee, the leader of the pack, is truly obsessed with hip-hop and that will be his big break.
Of all four, only Mougler seems to really have an immediate need for money. His mother is sick and his father is a drunkard of the worst order. Although he still lives in the village, he spends most of his time sitting around drinking. Interestingly, he arrives at the scene of the first crime we witness the boys commit and at the time there is no indication that he is related to any of them.
Mougler and his friends are caught in the eternal trap of trying to get out of poverty through illegal means. As they are in turn 'samfied' by those they rob for, the nature of their crimes escalate. Eventually, they decide to engage in the daring scheme to rob the lottery (Dôlé) kiosk. The boys decide to perform the 'operation' after they spend most of their money playing a scratch and win game without winning anything.
In somewhat of a sidebar to the real theme, the movie shows how much lottery games play on the dreams of the impoverished and, in general, only suck them further into poverty. When they first hear of the game, the boys are fascinated by how easy it is to win 1 million francs. All they have to do is get three parrots. However, after several attempts, the parrots never materialise and they begin to despair of ever winning.
As they already have no moral centre, robbing the kiosk is a logical step. Mougler believes he has good reason to rob the kiosk. He cannot afford all the medication his mother needs and she is slowly dying.
By the end of the film, in what seems to be something of a cop out, the boys seem to have learnt that playing the lottery is an exercise in futility.
The Francophone Film Festival is currently at the Palace Cineplex, Sovereign Centre, Liguanea, St Andrew. It ends next Tuesday. On Monday, Ma Vie En Rose (My Life in Pink), a psychological drama from Belgium, will be showing, while on Tuesday Le Temps Retrouve (Time Regained) will close the festival.
