(Senegal/France/Belgium, 87 min.)
Dir. Dyana Gaye, Writ. Dyana Gaye and Cécile Vergaftig
Starring: Marème Demba Ly, Ralph Amoussou, Souleymane Seye
Ndiaye
Abdoulaye (Souleymane Seye Ndiaye), on the other hand,
arrives in New York via an illegal network. Abdoulaye comes in search of work
and better prospects with his cousin. Like Sophie, though, he quickly meets an
unexpected twist of fate and must adapt to a life’s turns.
Thierno (Ralph Amoussou), finally, arrives in Dakar with his
mother to bury the father who left them behind in New York years before.
Experiencing the sights and smells of Africa for the first time, Thierno is
struck by the place that Sophie and Abdoulaye left behind.
The three threads of Under
the Starry Sky come together for an effective snapshot of the African diaspora
as Gaye shows three interconnected characters negotiating new lives in unfamiliar
terrain. Each story reveals different elements of migration and mobility, as
each of the three essentially finds a fresh start in a foreign land. Each tale
begins with an encounter with new place, as Sophie, Abdoulaye, and Thierno all start
the films by landing in their new destinations. They’re marked as
fish-out-of-water immediately, as each of the three begins their respective
thread somewhat astray: Sophie wanders the Italian streets in search of a
French-speaking citizen who can help with directions while Abdoulaye is hit
with the cold reality that America is not the land of opportunity he hoped it
would be.
Gaye weaves the stories with a fine eye for symmetry. One
person leaves while the other arrives, thus giving the film a sense of constant
flux and motion. Match shots give the characters a similar situation, as Gaye
and cinematographer Irina Lubtchansky frame the subjects with a longing gaze as
they stare outside the borders of the frame and take stock of their new locations.
The stories of Under
the Starry Sky reveal both the financial and personal restrictions on mobility,
for both Sophie and Abdoulaye are guided by circumstance throughout their
threads. Thrust into a new place without a plan, nor any means to return home,
each of them must adapt to the new city and rely on choice encounters to better
their situation. Thierno, on the other hand, sees a markedly different shift in
values during his stay in Dakar, but his story is the only one of the three with
any sense of rootedness. Unlike his distant relatives, he can leave whenever he
likes. On the other hand, his stay with his conservative/traditional relatives
hints at the life that the others, especially Sophie, had to leave behind.
Gaye ties the stories together very carefully, offering the
gradual clues for finding one person’s relationship to the other. Each thread
connects to the other even though they’re not explicitly linked, but each story
is united by a hopefulness and sense of optimism that life will be better off
elsewhere. This modestly understated film relies on the strength of its
performances to carry the power of the film. The three leads greet the task nicely,
especially Marème Demba Ly as Sophie. Under
the Starry Sky is a poignant story about interconnection in an increasingly
globalized world, and writer/director Dyana Gaye uses three intimate human
dramas to deliver a story that feels both specific and universal.
Rating: ★★★½ (out of ★★★★★)
Under the Starry Sky screened in Ottawa at DiverCiné on Saturday,
March 8.
