ashleyparsons115 Twiste a Popenguine is a movie definitely worth seeing. The movie follows two different groups of teenagers who live in Africa. You really get a feel for how life was back then in Africa. The movie follows the children around in their everyday life and shows how colonized they have become. The music that the director uses throughout the movie really ties everything together. Some of the music may even be familiar as it is popular rock and roll songs that are still around today. The movie is narrated to kind of give one the feel that it is an autobiography of one's life. Personally I thought this made the movie a lot easier to understand and follow along too. Both groups have to adapt to the changes in modernity throughout the whole movie. It is very interesting to see how this happens and how they each react to what is going on.There is one person in the movie who is not a native of Africa, Mr. Benoit. It is interesting to see how he adapts to the culture and fits in with everyone else in the movie. He plays an important part of showing just how much the society is colonized and how to adapt to it. Throughout the whole movie he feels as if he doesn't belong to any country and doesn't know what to do. Luckily he gets accepted into the community and finally feels like he belongs. It's insightful to see how he progresses on his journey.The whole society is influenced by French colonization. At school the children are only allowed to learn French. I found it so interesting that they speak French and not their native language of Wolof. There is so much French adapted in the movie that you wouldn't even think you were in Africa at times. The only real problem I saw with the movie was the acting wasn't what you would find in most movies. The director casted all regular every day people so you can tell that they don't have acting experience or that the lines were written ahead of time with a script. This gives you the feeling though that it is more of a real autobiographical movie.This movie is definitely one worth watching if you want to see how Africa has become colonized. Be warned the ending of the movie ends abruptly but it still makes the movie worth watching. The fact that it isn't widely distributed will hopefully change in the upcoming years as well.

Stickney09 The move Ca Twiste a Popenguine is a wonderful portrayal of Africa and how they are dealing with changes of outside cultures. The film shows the lives of children who are trapped between two cultures. In the film each child has three names; there Arabic name in which their family members use, a French name that is used at school, and lastly the name they choose for their self, which is most often an American rock stars name. The children are stuck in limbo between different worlds because of culture. The irony in this is the teen's teacher Monsieur Benoit who is there teaching them French, feels alienated from both Senegal and France. What makes this ironic is that although the teens are mixed between different cultures and they seem to have a firm grasp on who they are. They are fine with the two cultures as long as you remain true to yourself.During another scene an argument happens between Monsieur Benoit and Jabeel, one of the teen boys fathers, about the children's future. Benoit believes the teens should strive for bigger and better horizons. While Jabeel believes the teens should be just like their fathers. In this scene the viewers see the give and take from two cultures. The last scene of the film is a great example of post-modernism, when tradition and new fads are mixed together, because the teens threw a party with a mixture of cultures, music, and dancing.Overall Ca Twiste a popenguine was a good film to show African culture. I was worried I would not be able to understand the background of the film and some references made about past issues, but the film is actually an easy follow. What we learned in class helped me to better understand the film, but a anyone can enjoy this upbeat African film.

Tara Mayer In the film Ca Twiste a Popenguine a young boy, Bacc, tells his life story in Senegal. The dream for all the students in his school is to get lost in the city, possibly Paris, just as his mother had. Everyone is his village speaks French. The language is portrayed positively throughout the film because it is spoken by everyone even though there is the fear they are losing site of their own culture with the adoption of the French language. French education is also portrayed positively because it allows the students to prepare to go to Paris and get lost in the city to get a job and become rich.Concepts are quite different in Senegal than we are used to here in America. All of the children have two names, one being the pop music name they picked out themselves based on their social class and the other being their given name. Their given name is either French or Arabic and is used when they are in school. Music plays a very important role in this film, not just a way children can classify themselves by name. Each type of music is listened to by a different social class: Senegalese, French, and American. Children who listen to American music have American pop names and French music listeners have French pop names.Their teacher, Monsieur Benoit, is the European that supplies these children with their French education. Monsieur Benoit, however, has a problem. He doesn't know where he feels more alien: Senegal or France. He is a man stuck between two cultures. It's ironic he feels this way because France is colonizing Senegal and the European feels the outsider of his culture instead of the Africans. The village lets him know they love and honor him as a part of their culture. They sing to him to assure him of their affection. This shows belonging isn't about where you are, but the people you are with. The village stands together and protects everyone in it, especially the children. The Africans don't look at the colonization as a bad thing. They are still able to keep their culture and build off of the French culture. This film is not sad in the slightest. The ending is happy because everyone ends up where they want to be. Monsieur Benoit gains his sense of belonging in Senegal and Bacc as well as many of the other children move to the city. The two cultures are mashed together. Modernization is introduced to the Senegal culture without destroying it. There wasn't a huge crisis due to modernization as there is in other cultures.This film felt real, there wasn't really a huge problem that everyone had to overcome that gave an all or nothing result. It was more of a change is in our midst scenario and instead of choosing one culture over the other everything just meshed together and happened. It does not follow the typical linear story we are used to.

Nichole Simpson I found the film Ça Twiste à Poponguine to be a very enjoyable movie. Two aspects I greatly enjoyed were: the perspective on colonization the director, Mousa Sene Absa, choose to take and the fact that this film was purely African. Most movies about Africa tend to portray the people in a very poor and inaccurate way. Usually, Africans are shown as poor, sad, diseased, dying, and in need of help. True, the village of Poponguine was not the biggest or richest place with western houses, grassy yards, or carpeted living spaces. However, the people were happy and had what they needed. A western house, grassy yards, and carpet would not be very functional for their climate, nor would those things last very long. The story had a happy ending for the African people in Poponguine, unlike a usual tragedy in Western films about Africa.The other part of the film I enjoyed was Mousa Sene Absa's portrayal of colonization. According to many different African authors colonization is evil and destroys the traditions, culture, and people of Africa. Absa chooses to say that colonization is not that bad. Colonization is a very perplexing and complicated issue, so much so, that when discussing it one has to look deeper than the surface. Typically one would think of colonization as wiping out the traditions and customs of another culture. Absa says that it is possible to use colonization to mesh the good parts of two cultures. The people spoke two languages: French and Senegalese. Senegalese was spoken at home and within the village and French was spoken at home. African authors like Ngugi Wa Thiong'o have a problem with being forced to learn another language. Absa frequently references people who "got lost in the city," possibly referring to Paris or another city in France. If the common trend was to go to France for work, it would be necessary for the people to learn French.The main character and narrator of the film is a young orphan boy named Bacc. He says that he has been raised by the whole village and that he has many mothers and fathers. Bacc spends his time in school learning French and French history and running errands between two gangs, the In's (short for Inseparables) and the Kings. These gangs are made up of young teenagers, who are in competition for the most important thing, girls. To impress the girls they need music and a record player. In spite of having a record player, the Kings cannot seem to win the girls over. The In's have records, but they do not have a record player. They are willing to work hard to earn enough money to buy one for themselves.It seems that Absa is trying to point out that, colonization or not, their life is not really that different from anyone else's life, no matter the country. There are several different religions portrayed, as well as people from different walks of life. There are children who come from wealthier families; however, they are still friends with those from a lower economic status. There are parents with very differing ideas of what their children should and shouldn't do or be. These things are not affected by culture or colonization. I could identify my parents with one of the parents in the film and could see similarities to some of my friend's parents.Colonization is not that bad. It can be used as a means to better the African people, while still holding onto their traditional roots. One group of people does not need to become exact replicas of another culture to be happy and productive. These are the ides I have taken from this film.