Boris Gerrets
Netherlands, France | 2013 | 86 min
Languages : Creole, English
Subtitles : English, French
In Freetown, Sierra Leone, people with disabilities living on the margins of society are filmed during a night that seems like it will never end. The filmmaker closely follows the dynamics that govern the lives of this small community, without showing complacency or judgment. The respect that imbues his immersive observation shows us the essence: the people in the shadows have a beating heart.
The men in the shadows are a group of people with disabilities living on the margins of society, in the noisy city of Freetown, Sierra Leone: Lama and David are blind and grope around on the humid rough patches of the pavement; Shero, a Rasta sitting in a wheelchair, drinks while waiting for one of Sarah’s children, who is also “crippled” but still walking; Alfred, alone, criss-crosses the city that he hammers with his crutches and at times turns into a go-between when the Shero-Sarah couple threatens to collapse. They are filmed during a night that seems like it will never end, appearing before the camera for the first time like an army of ghosts. The filmmaker closely follows the dynamics that govern the co-existence of this small community, without showing complacency or judgment. Respect is the basis of his immersive observation. So much so that the protagonists could say, like the Freaks of Tod Browning: “One of us, one of us!” He thus captures the breathing of their bodies, their murmurs, their desires and anguish, their belonging to the huge domain of humanity.
Luciano Barisone
