mehmelae Ça Twiste À Popenguine is a 90 minute film that is both funny and depressing. It is funny because the little boy Baac is very smart and he uses that to his advantage by playing the two gangs, the Kings and the Ins, against each other. Also, the way the villagers are dressed is funny. The boys wear bright colored bell bottoms with matching shirts, colors like orange and yellow. The depressing part comes from the fact that the children have been colonized. They want to be European or American singers and even have singers like Ray Charles and Eddy Mitchell as nicknames. It also doesn't help that in school the children are beat by a témoin, a stick, if they speak their native language of Wolof.The film's story line is like Tsitsi Dangarembga's Nervous Condtions in that it is about being taken over by colonialism and whether that is a bad thing or not. In Nervous Conditions it wasn't such a bad thing because there were more advantages to becoming colonized then staying in one's traditional role. The same is true in this film. An example of this is the scene at the European resort. Everything at the resort is depicted as better. The building is stone compared to straw huts. There is a pool and black people have jobs.A scene that makes colonialism very poignant is when the school teacher, Mr. Benoîr, says to Jabeel that the children are the future. The children are learning to be European in school, in particular French; therefore, the future of Senegal is French.Ça Twiste À Popenguine is more of a documentary type film. The acting is not very good and the script was either poorly written or non-existent. However, once those small flaws are overlooked, the movie becomes an interesting take on colonialism in Africa and how people react to it. This movie is humorous and enjoyable, yet, when one looks beyond the surface of the story line one will see that there is more going one then it seems. This movie is for people who are interested in colonialism and its effects, but that doesn't mean other people cannot enjoy it too.

jasonhahnfl Moussa Sene Absa does a nice job portraying the American and French influence in Popenguine from multiple perspectives with many different attitudes in his 1994 film Ça Twiste à Poponguine. The manner in which colonization is depicted in Senegal around the mid 1960s was very light and peaceful.The cultural differences and how others reacted to one another I thought was done very nicely. We are first introduced to these two group of teenagers known as the "Kings" and the "Inseparables". Both of these groups are very into French, American music, clothing, culture and even take on corresponding nicknames. On the other side we are shown a majority of the male elders who are more traditional in style and in general.The male elders were regarded as a father to all and seemed to dislike the younger generations obsession with the western culture from their academics to their clothing. The elder women seem to be a mix of both, although culturally they were more traditional it was as if they had accepted the French influence in academics with some importance and validity as we saw them quizzing the children in the film. Most interesting to me was Mr. Benoits struggle with the cultural differences.Throughout the film we are shown how the people of Popenguine encounters with each other and their multiple cultural points of view. However Mr. Benoit a teacher from France who was highly regarded by the towns people as a good guy seems to be in turmoil. Mr Benoit preaches about how the cultures needed to give and take from one another to make things work. Sadly Mr. Benoits drunken rant in the bar began to say things to the opposite effect however it later turned out that he himself did not who he was or where he belonged and his drunken statements did not represent his true feelings because he actually felt more at home in Popenguine than France. Overall I found this amazing it was as if the colonizer was turning into the victim compared to those who had been colonized. Yet it was the colonized people who helped the colonizer feel at home.

askarifaiza Interesting, comical, and dramatic can be easily described for Rocking Popguine. It's a very attention grabbing movie in my opinion. The movie allows you to see the influence of the French culture in this town and the importance of it. French education and language was portrayed as being superior. The main character, Bacc, the little boy being raised by the community because his mother left him and ran away to France significance how the culture pulls together to raise the children of the future. Colonialism is often viewed as a bad thing. But in this movie it showed both the good and bad effect it had on the people. It was interesting to see that only French education such as French history was being taught in this little town of Africa. It struck out to me when the "grandmother" told Bacc to create African history and make her proud, to write the history of Africa. The African way of life was being integrated with the American and French traditions and culture. The youth loved to learn the French ways, but the elder generation had a hard time excepting the French ways. It was very interesting to see that these kids wanted to be associated with the French or even American culture rather than their own. Speaking French, listening to French music, deciding their own names based on rock stars.Another problem that was displayed in the movie is how the teacher, Mr. Beniot had a problem with himself. He felt as if he belonged to nowhere. He felt as if he was an alien to France, his home country and to Africa, where he spent most of his time. This conflict showed how he battled the idea of where home was for him, liking things of both French and African culture.It was interesting to see how the children from the movie had two names. The name that they were born with and the French or American name they choose in school. Some children even picked a name off of famous rockstars. The children prefer to go by the names they had picked their own self over the names that were given to them by their families. Music had a great impact on the children in the movie. The "Ins" are influenced by French pop music while the "kings" were influenced by American pop music. It was interesting to see how the rivalry was caused because one group had the girls but no disc player while the other group had the disc player but no girls. I know this movie was not provided a large amount of money to keep up with Hollywood but I would still have to say that it was such a good movie despite that. It was cool, it was fun and best of all it was humorous. Overall what I gained from this movie was how much French culture was incorporated into Africa. The comedy helped earn its points as well.

sturner88 After Reading Stories written by Jomo Kenyatta and Tsitsi Dangarembga, that were about the negative effects of colonization. It was nice to finally see stories about a place in Africa were the influence of European culture was not frowned upon. The movie Ça Twiste à Popenguine took place in Popeguine, Senegal which were owned by the French. The Wolof people found the balance between their cutler and the French. There was also a little bit of American influence with the younger crowed. Many named themselves after well known rock singers. However, what made this story so ironic was that the French men whom was their teacher was the one who was having a difficult time trying to find the balance between the two cultures.It was hard to put much thought into some of the scenes since throughout the entire movie you are reading subtitles. There were a couple of scenes that didn't make sense to me and made me wonder why they were in the movie at all. Also, there was a couple of scenes were suddenly it would jump from day to night. These scenes did not appear natural and looked force. This confused me as a viewer of the audience because of the fast scene transitions. I very much enjoyed the movie because I felt like it gave me a better understanding of some of the lives of the African culture, or in this case the Wolof culture.