The Pirogue (2012)
Average Rating: 7.4/10
Reviews Counted: 13
Fresh: 11 | Rotten: 2
No consensus yet.
Average Rating: 7.8/10
Critic Reviews: 8
Fresh: 7 | Rotten: 1
No consensus yet.
liked it
Average Rating: 3.4/5
User Ratings: 159
My Rating
Movie Info
Baye Laye is the captain of a fishing pirogue. Like many of his Senegalese compatriots, he sometimes dreams of new horizons, where he can earn a better living for his family. When he is offered to lead one of the many pirogues that head towards Europe via the Canary Island, he reluctantly accepts the job, knowing full-well the dangers that lie ahead. Leading a group of 30 men who don't all speak the same language, some of whom have never seen the sea, Baye Laye will confront many perils in order
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All Critics (14) | Top Critics (9) | Fresh (11) | Rotten (2)
It's as sadly repetitive a story for Europe as it is for the US: would-be immigrants risking all for a better opportunity elsewhere.
Top CriticEvery moment feels human and true, from the naive optimism of the trip's sendoff to its unsparingly realistic conclusion, which trades reckless hope for quiet honor.
Given the film's neo-neorealist imperative, the real achievement here is affecting detail within an observational approach.
[It] touches, subtly, on issues of faith, feminism and a faltering world economy.
There's enough filmmaking talent evident throughout that you wish the journey were more satisfying overall.
A remarkably cleareyed, quietly ambitious film ...
Director Moussa Touré's allegorical underpinning transforms this rather predictable plot, ripped from familiar headlines around the world, into a decidedly Senegalese story.
A key to the realism is tribal and linguistic diversity so often ignored in films about Africans. . memorably captures the staggering determination it takes to go to Europe.
Moussa Touré's worldview, like Ousmane Sembene's, is characterized by the feeling that, at the end of the day, some degree of loss or defeat is inevitable.
Politically powerful neorealist treatment on Senegalese "boat people" done with a poet's touch.
A compelling cross of Life of Pi and Lifeboat, a seafaring tale of survival sans the Bengal tiger and Tallulah Bankhead.
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Foreign Titles
- La Pirogue (DE)
- The Pirogue (UK)
As social drama, "The Pirogue" does its job in shining the light on the plight of those who are desperate enough to risk their lives to make a new life for themselves in Europe. According to the endnote, from 2005 to 2010, 30,000 started out from Africa, with 5,000 dying en route. The point being made here is that even with the most meticulous preparations, some things cannot be accounted for.(Or in other words, there is no such thing as an atheist on the open seas.) Even though a documentary might not have been the best route, this dramatic presentation is far from perfect, either, even as it is well filmed. To be honest, the movie should actually have been longer, as it is rather anticlimactic.