Saaraba's disquieting theme unrolls in a style that unprotestingly uses many of the conventions of European television narrative, from the camerawork featuring many closeups to the editing to the efficient pacing. But given the film's theme, stressing the impossibility of a blind return to tradition and the dilemmas of development, the stylistic choices do not ring false. This is a film about people trapped between epochs and worlds. Neither Tamsir nor his creator Seck can deny the intermixing of cultures. Still, it's clear this is a first feature.
Psychological motivation takes second place to the filmmaker's thematic exposition.
The 38-year old Senegalese Amadou Saalum Seck made this film with mostly German technicians, after studying film in Germany and making several short documentaries. This was his thesis film. Senegal has now benefitted from several generations of filmmakers, some documentarians and some fiction storytellers. Seck takes his place among the sharply critical, sometimes cynical newer generation of cineastes. It represents a rising voice of alienation and despair at the fulfillment of promises of development and of independence.