Of course, the film could have played in Berlin as well. But it had to be Frankfurt, where Florian Dietrich's remarkable debut, which has just opened in the cinema, is located. Not so much because the director of “Toubab”, who with his thesis at the German Film and Television Academy Berlin also presented his first full-length feature film, comes from Wiesbaden. Or Hessenfilm und Medien accompanied the project from the start. Or the idea was born. Here, where Dietrich, who was born in 1986, and his co-author Arne Dechow met people like Babtou at workshops in the correctional facility, who, after being released from prison for a scam, is already having trouble with the police again. And should be deported as a repeat offender. To Senegal. Where Babtou has never been in his life.
Christoph Schütte
Freelance author in the Rhein-Main-Zeitung.
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“It wasn't even clear to me that it would even work,” Dietrich recalled at the premiere of his film in Frankfurt's Harmonie cinema: “That someone was born and raised here, and yet it is possible that he will be deported.” Why for Babtou begins a race against time.
With the judiciary and the immigration authorities who refuse to believe that it is love that has brought him and his old friend Dennis to the registry office and to the altar.
And not the revoked residence permit.
The White
That, clearly, is the stuff comedies are made of. And in fact, “Toubab”, which means something like “the white one” in Central Africa, is always pretty funny. Of course, without ever drifting into slapstick or a new edition of the “cage full of fools”. It's about current issues such as queer identity and homophobia, stereotypes and “toxic masculinity”, as Dietrich puts it, but also about their rather amusing deconstruction. Not least thanks to a great ensemble: Michael Maertens and Valerie Koch as the pair of officers investigating the caricature, Paul Wollin as the great Kiezkönig Cengo, Seyneb Saleh as Yara.
The film is carried by the wonderfully harmonious main actors Julius Nitschkoff as Dennis and Farba Dieng, who grew up in Darmstadt, as Babtou in his first major role.
And of course from Frankfurt.
As well as Darmstadt-Kranichstein as a fresh, unused backdrop.
"It was important to me to find a cinematic universe that stands for itself," said Dietrich at the premiere.
After all, “Toubab” is not a “naturalistic film”.
This is not about local color, even if the skyline occasionally makes a big appearance in front of Max Preiss' camera.
No question about it, “Toubab” would have been a different film in Berlin.
But Frankfurt is actually ideal for a comedy to be taken seriously.
"Toubab" can be seen this Saturday at the Murnau Filmtheater Wiesbaden and on Sunday, September 26th, at Rex Kino Darmstadt