Orpheus is already with a woman, but leaves her without giving her an official reason, and travels to the underworld literally, to get Eurydice back as doom follows her and death is inevitable, while Orpheus's ex patrols in envy and finally causes them both to fall. It's not Romeo and Juliet at all, who even thought of that? When you watch this film, you will see my summary of Orpheus and Eurydice matches way more than R&J.
This film also needs to be named Gangs instead. It isn't about being black, it's about being a gang member. Japanese gangs gang rape each other, Chinese, Indian, the British gang rape each other, French, Italian, Russian, Hispanic...every race and country has its underworld and there will be rapes. So the opening scene is annoyingly offensive and inaccurate to show a girl being raped by a gang while rap music ("black" music) is playing, as the title Black appears on the screen. It singles out black men as rapists and that women are prey to black men. The film also shows a one-sided, demonising look at gang culture: the black gang. It doesn't show the antics and crimes of the Moroccan/Flemish gang throughout the film like it showed the black gang life. But if you use some critical thinking you will see the real villains here are the racists that shove blacks and foreigners in a corner, pressuring them to resent and therefore to go against each other.
Nothing about this film is about being black except Marwan's racist friends and family towards black people. And it's actually what sets off the closing scene, which did make me cry. But I probably would've cried if it was two white teens in this same setting that the film was shot (very nicely, by the way, must say). Because it's a shame. You want to love someone and stupid people you know tear you apart for dumb reasons. The Moroccan and Brussels racism is what causes the fateful sticky end for the two lead roles because if it wasn't for Marwan's ex girlfriend a white girl jealously pitting Marwan and his new black girlfriend and her gang against each other, then the other half of the movie would've never happened. You will see. So it's not that Marwan and Mavela are wrong for loving each other, it's that Marwan's friends are seedy assholes, and his brother was mad because he was with a black girl. Exacerbating the rage, however, are the ills of the gang Mavela is a part of. But that's because they're a gang, they just happen to be black. It's not because they're black.
Now some stuff was cute and nicely done. The Moroccan cop tough loving Marwan, and the black cop protecting Mavela, simultaneously though shown separately. And how they each console Marwan and Mavela in the last scene; it shows a sort of cycle: that nonwhite cops are evermore tied into the youth gangs of people from their own cultures. The dilemma they face. They have a job to do but empathise with these kids. That was basically touched upon here. The film was 1 hr 30 minutes. If it had divulged the quadruple relationships between the two cops and the two young lovers the film would've been 10, 15 minutes longer; so the length shows there were some voids in the plot and character development. But for what it had it was okay as a whole, with some great moments and visuals in between.
I also like that Marwan and Mavela's relationship started rather simply, rather naturally. It wasn't like A Bronx Tale with Robert DeNiro where there's a drawn out chase for like half the film just to talk to the girl, and long family talks about black women and whether to date them or not. North African and Indian men approach black woman a lot all over the world and they'd do it more if it weren't for society.
Another cute scene was how the ending unfolded. Marwan is pressured from his end, while Mavela is shown being pressured from her end. I never even thought of Romeo and Juliet while watching; so I didn't know how the movie would end so it's not that obvious. How these scenes came to be was steadily and kind of excitingly approached, but with a heavy sense of hovering doom due to a preceding hodgepodge of nonstop horrible events like rapes and thefts and drugs and fights. I didn't know it would be like that, I think me crying at the end was simply me coming out of shock that the prior 85 minutes had put me through. It's damn near a horror film. Well I'll certainly be Googling "Brussels youth crime" later, won't I?
Another thing this film taught me based on its use of French and Dutch was the meaning of "migrant." Apparently you can gain citizenship in one European country and once you do, quite easily migrate to another and perhaps settle there. I did not know that, so perhaps anti-migration isn't just anti-Muslim and anti-European- lower class, but also anti-black...How rude.
Anyway nice looking film (it's like a loooong rap music video), HORRIBLE story about the WORST type of life, but nicely connected. Good acting, rap music so if you don't like it oh well, can't help you. Lots of rape, blatant sex scenes, bullets, tears, blood, drastically stupid decisions, montages of dangerous nightlife, perilous citylife...it's one big bloody queef of a movie. But it's not...boring. The lead actor, Aboubakr, is beautiful, charismatic and SEXY. He makes me want to go ALL the way to Brussels LOL! If it weren't for him I'll be honest..I would've abandoned during the opening credits. Would I watch again, hell no. Will I think about this film (and Aboubakr) for weeks to come. Oh yes.
This film also needs to be named Gangs instead. It isn't about being black, it's about being a gang member. Japanese gangs gang rape each other, Chinese, Indian, the British gang rape each other, French, Italian, Russian, Hispanic...every race and country has its underworld and there will be rapes. So the opening scene is annoyingly offensive and inaccurate to show a girl being raped by a gang while rap music ("black" music) is playing, as the title Black appears on the screen. It singles out black men as rapists and that women are prey to black men. The film also shows a one-sided, demonising look at gang culture: the black gang. It doesn't show the antics and crimes of the Moroccan/Flemish gang throughout the film like it showed the black gang life. But if you use some critical thinking you will see the real villains here are the racists that shove blacks and foreigners in a corner, pressuring them to resent and therefore to go against each other.
Nothing about this film is about being black except Marwan's racist friends and family towards black people. And it's actually what sets off the closing scene, which did make me cry. But I probably would've cried if it was two white teens in this same setting that the film was shot (very nicely, by the way, must say). Because it's a shame. You want to love someone and stupid people you know tear you apart for dumb reasons. The Moroccan and Brussels racism is what causes the fateful sticky end for the two lead roles because if it wasn't for Marwan's ex girlfriend a white girl jealously pitting Marwan and his new black girlfriend and her gang against each other, then the other half of the movie would've never happened. You will see. So it's not that Marwan and Mavela are wrong for loving each other, it's that Marwan's friends are seedy assholes, and his brother was mad because he was with a black girl. Exacerbating the rage, however, are the ills of the gang Mavela is a part of. But that's because they're a gang, they just happen to be black. It's not because they're black.
Now some stuff was cute and nicely done. The Moroccan cop tough loving Marwan, and the black cop protecting Mavela, simultaneously though shown separately. And how they each console Marwan and Mavela in the last scene; it shows a sort of cycle: that nonwhite cops are evermore tied into the youth gangs of people from their own cultures. The dilemma they face. They have a job to do but empathise with these kids. That was basically touched upon here. The film was 1 hr 30 minutes. If it had divulged the quadruple relationships between the two cops and the two young lovers the film would've been 10, 15 minutes longer; so the length shows there were some voids in the plot and character development. But for what it had it was okay as a whole, with some great moments and visuals in between.
I also like that Marwan and Mavela's relationship started rather simply, rather naturally. It wasn't like A Bronx Tale with Robert DeNiro where there's a drawn out chase for like half the film just to talk to the girl, and long family talks about black women and whether to date them or not. North African and Indian men approach black woman a lot all over the world and they'd do it more if it weren't for society.
Another cute scene was how the ending unfolded. Marwan is pressured from his end, while Mavela is shown being pressured from her end. I never even thought of Romeo and Juliet while watching; so I didn't know how the movie would end so it's not that obvious. How these scenes came to be was steadily and kind of excitingly approached, but with a heavy sense of hovering doom due to a preceding hodgepodge of nonstop horrible events like rapes and thefts and drugs and fights. I didn't know it would be like that, I think me crying at the end was simply me coming out of shock that the prior 85 minutes had put me through. It's damn near a horror film. Well I'll certainly be Googling "Brussels youth crime" later, won't I?
Another thing this film taught me based on its use of French and Dutch was the meaning of "migrant." Apparently you can gain citizenship in one European country and once you do, quite easily migrate to another and perhaps settle there. I did not know that, so perhaps anti-migration isn't just anti-Muslim and anti-European- lower class, but also anti-black...How rude.
Anyway nice looking film (it's like a loooong rap music video), HORRIBLE story about the WORST type of life, but nicely connected. Good acting, rap music so if you don't like it oh well, can't help you. Lots of rape, blatant sex scenes, bullets, tears, blood, drastically stupid decisions, montages of dangerous nightlife, perilous citylife...it's one big bloody queef of a movie. But it's not...boring. The lead actor, Aboubakr, is beautiful, charismatic and SEXY. He makes me want to go ALL the way to Brussels LOL! If it weren't for him I'll be honest..I would've abandoned during the opening credits. Would I watch again, hell no. Will I think about this film (and Aboubakr) for weeks to come. Oh yes.