The old man and the kid who occupy vast swaths of Tawfik Baba’s film have no real names. They find themselves in the desert and along the line, the man, grizzled but energetic, christens his young companion Friday. The young man calls his elderly chaperone Old Man.
It soon becomes apparent that Friday is seeking to cross the desert into Morocco where it is his dream to join the circus. The old man has a different plan. He tells Friday he is on his way to his daughter’s wedding and is carrying a gift to her. It is, however, clear to both the viewer and the boy that father and daughter are not exactly great friends. The adventure proceeds—if you can call their trudging around and looking for water in an arid land an adventure.
By setting his story in the desert, Baba has already dictated the outlines of his film’s politics. And if that isn’t quite enough, there is the fact that the kid is clearly from the sub-Sahara and the man appears to be Arab, although Friday refers to him as white. Perhaps intentionally, the film’s quite handsome cinematography adds a layer of ambiguity to the old man’s actual race.
Baba’s decision to keep the film’s politics more implicit than explicit is admirable, focusing instead on the relationship of the two travelers. So that for some time, Oliver Black is a subdued buddy flick, despite the aridity of both place and dialogue. The repartee is enjoyable, leading the viewer to think of the film as primarily about the bonding between two men different in race, age, and ambition. What can a young man gain from an old man in a desert? Of what benefit is companionship to the old man? It seems these rather human questions are what his film is about. Until it becomes clear that Baba has wrongfooted his viewer.
One of the first scenes that alerts us to a switch in theme and temperature comes on a night so dark it is not clear just what has happened. We see Friday flee, another man apparently knocked out cold, and the old man screaming in the wake of the young man. Later, the word “rape” is used, with the boy crying, saying something along the lines of a black man wanting to hurt a black boy. I admit I was uncomfortable with the barefacedness of the whole thing, wanting something better than this have-your-cake-and-have-it scenario of black on black violence.
But when later, due to a twist that the director spells out clearly, it felt not quite right either. Could this be a sign that Baba is a great director of political dramas? I’m not sure. Baba is clearly talented and may even be brilliant, but the over-egging of his politics—which is the standard “Africa must develop Africa” creed touted by many politicians at home and abroad—makes it difficult to defend his artistry without some misgiving. And rather than explain the twist in the tale, Baba jumbles it up and then over-poeticizes it. The upshot is a lack of coherence tacked on to what has, until that moment, been a straightforward narrative. Perhaps the director thought his deeply felt story about African politics and development went over too easy and decided over-elaboration would correct the story’s simplicity?
Otherwise, Oliver Black is well-paced and it is quite remarkable what Baba gets from a paucity of characters in a setting marked mostly by dearth. Admittedly, the ending is wonky, but thankfully the rest of the film is worthy of attention.
Director, screenplay: Tawfik Baba
Producer: Rabab Aboulhassani, Tawfik Baba,
Executive producer: Daphna Ziman
Cast: Mohamed Elachi, Modu Mbow, Ilham Oujiri
Cinematography: Smail Touil
Editor: Yassin Jaber, Aissam Raja
Sound: Amine Arrom
Distributor: Cinémoi (USA)
Production Company: 7th Sense
Runtime: 93 minutes
