Hadrina The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Rio Hayward All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Freeman This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

Billy Ollie Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

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.

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.

washbucy I want to start this review by saying that this movie is both entertaining and educational. It allows you a peek into the life of both the Africans and the French during colonization. This unique film exposes you to the real life problems that are faced not only with the French trying to colonize Africa but the troubles that arise within an African tribe itself. That being said I give this film a 7 out of 10. The only reason it was not higher is due to the nature that the plot got confusing and jumbled at points, but otherwise a brilliant movie that touches on all of your emotions.Ca Twiste a Popenguine (Rocking Popenguine) takes place in 1960's Africa following main character Bacc and his fellow tribe mates during French colonization. Bacc does not have any biological parents within the tribe due to the fact they left to go to Paris and as the film states "got lost in the streets". This "got lost in the streets" metaphorically speaking insures the viewer that Bacc's parents accepted the French way of life and never returned to their home life in Africa leaving Bacc in the care of the whole entire tribe. This sets up a conflict between Bacc and the rest of the tribe. The tribe, besides a select few, believe that Bacc will become just like his parents and therefore treat him as a outcast of the tribe. This could symbolize the difference between tradition and modernity in Africa during colonization. Bacc and his parents represent the French way of life; good education (Bacc is brilliant), money, business skills, and the desire to be better than normal (Bacc wants to be in the "Pitchoss" or movies). Whereas the tribe represents the desire to maintain tradition and not accept modernity. Which is portrayed in the scene of the movie where the kids of the gang, The Inseparables, are given a swatting and yelled at for their behavior in throwing a surprise party involving American and French music which allowed close slow dancing. Mr. Benoit, the tribes only Frenchman and teacher, tries to step in and tell Jabeel, the tribes religious figure, that these kids do not deserve that type of punishment for the crime they supposedly committed for they are the future of the tribe. This continues with the theme of modernity versus tradition. While this movie generally follows Bacc and his mishaps and learnings it also follows the struggles of two gangs within the tribe. The Inseparables and The Kings. The Inseparables are a gang of teens that accept and embrace the French way of life. Whereas the The Kings represent the desire to live the American life. Throughout the whole film it is a constant struggle between the two to become the most popular and obtain the loyalty of the only two teen girls in Popenguine, Sylvie and Shelia. The Inseparables represent the traditional lifestyle they were raised by due to the fact of French colonization, while The Kings represent "change" or modernity (this is seen through their desire to have the newest records, teppaz, and TV). This power struggle causes some bumps in the road for both gangs mainly due to the fact that Bacc plays both sides never claiming or being claimed be either gang. The two gangs are ultimately brought together at the end of the movie with a clever plan by the producer of the film. The final scene of the movie shows the The Inseparables and the Kings together at a party with no negative feelings. The common ground that rings them together is ironic in itself, a Persian musician singing American Rock & Roll in the French language. Metaphorically speaking the tribe is brought together through a mesh of modernity and tradition, which is also ironic in nature. Mainly because the clash of modernity versus tradition is what ultimately caused all of the tribes struggles in the first place. Christianity and Islam meshed together, French and Wolof meshed together, Modernity versus Tradition meshed together, ultimately this movies shows Africa as "The Real Melting Pot".

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.