Self hatred or inner strife are the real obstacle

Rating: 9/10 (23 July 2007)

This film shows the real crossroads where the Blacks are in America, and I say the Blacks because they call themselves Blacks and not Afro-Americans or African Americans. The mother is dead, killed accidentally in a temper but the father. The father is in prison for a very long time. The son hates his father and has to learn how to get over his hatred. The daughter is missing her father but her brother is isolating her. The uncle and aunt only see the money the son represents. He is a high school star in basketball and he can get directly into making a lot of money if he joins the NBA or he can go to some university and have a scholarship. One more tricky element: the governor wants the kid for the team of his university, the one he sponsors and likes. So why not use the father, give him a week of semi freedom and force him thus to negotiate his son's signing the right papers. What's more the basketball star is invited by some schools to come and visit and there he is provided with everything he may desire, including the girls and the useless other entertainments. The NBA is offering a car to the uncle, though in fact it is for the son to run it. And the high school coach is able to put ten thousand dollars on the table for him to join, guess what, the NBA of course. Immoral. The film is saved from this muddy marshlandish country by the son choosing the only moral solution, the one that will help his father to get out faster, the one that is going to cure him from his hatred, even if that is slightly idealistic, frankly Utopian.
Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris Dauphine & University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne