Saloum

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Saloum

2021

Directed by Jean Luc Herbulot

Once upon a time in Africa...

Three mercenaries extracting a druglord out of Guinea-Bissau are forced to hide in the mystical region of Saloum, Senegal.

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Justin Decloux
Review by Justin Decloux ★★★★ Liked 3

A scorcher of a genre mash-up that is at once a breathless run-on sentence and an incredibly dense meditation on revenge.

Yann Gael deserves to be a megastar, as he's charisma personified as the leader of the Hyenas, a trio of mercenaries that find themselves trapped in a small remote village with a briefcase full of gold bricks and an army on their tail. Problems arise when a cop and a deaf-mute woman show up with secrets ready to explode, but before you know it, there's a bigger threat of the supernatural variety...

Writer/Director Jean Luc Herbulot masterfully paints the mercenaries as a cohesive unit that have been on a hundred adventures before. Every single minute of the film is…

Josh Lewis
Review by Josh Lewis ★★★ Liked 1

Falls off for me a bit with how it chooses to physically manifest its mystical horror elements (and I wish I felt the characters/history a bit more by the very end) but otherwise, I was extremely impressed with the way this looks and moves for its budget level, especially the opening half which is a series of really well timed and tense crime thriller conversations in the style of what i can only describe as spaghetti vice. Great, colorful location work and scope compositions, between this and Bacurau I've been very pleased lately to see international genre films formally pick up the Carpenter mantle.

Full discussion on my podcast SLEAZOIDS.

Matt!
Review by Matt! ★★★★ Liked 2

A prime example of a single movie which demands you immediately pay attention to every one of the filmmaker’s future releases.

Saloum is, without a doubt, one of the most badass films of the past few years. A Senegalese neo-Western that shifts into demonic horror about midway through, the movie follows a trio of dope ass mercenaries who’ve been paid to extract a Mexican drug lord during the Guinea-Bissau coup d’état of 2003. Shortly after escaping by plane, they’re forced to make an emergency landing and end up in a small village in Sine-Saloum, Senegal, after which sinister shit slowly starts to unravel.

Writer/director Jean Luc Herbulot crafts a gripping thriller in two separate genres over the course of this…

Robert Daniels
Review by Robert Daniels ★★★★ Liked

Ended up very much liking SALOUM, an uptempo Senegalese Western-horror mash-up that tears through the weight of childhood trauma, colonization, and local folklore for thrilling shocks.

Jake Cole
Review by Jake Cole ★★★★ 1

So many of the Midnight Madness movies this year were genre mashups but this was the only one that stuck the landing, skillfully weaving from mercenary thriller to supernatural horror with a mixture of visual utilitarianism and opulence worthy of Carpenter. For a movie that runs through about three different plots, there's not an ounce of fat on this, with details given once to an audience trusted to keep up rather than treated like children learning the alphabet. And underneath, its mixture of personal-is-political rage and deeper mytho-historical horror is at once timely and outside of time.

sirvived
Review by sirvived ★★★★ Liked 9

I’ve been waiting for this to be released. It’s finally here and I gotta say this and Dawn Breaks Behind the Eyes are the most original and stylish horror films coming out this year. This action crime folk horror is super cool and truly a great blend of genres. I love how it manages to pack so much from so many different genres, yet they somehow nail it and make it an extremely fun unexpected ride. There's an intriguing mystery at the core of it and some unexpected twists and emotional moments as well. Paired with great lead characters whose charisma elevate the film’s material greatly making it a super fun watch. With a solid script, terrific performances, this is a film that you shouldn’t pass up.

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Deathy
Review by Deathy ★★½ 6

Score : 5.9/10 ✅

Phenomenal first half followed by a distracting second half, Saloum is a movie that I really really wanted to liked and cherish but it sucks to tell you the truth but I eventually became disinterested and confused as we progress into the film.

To be 100% honest, I just couldn’t understand what was going on for the most part at the moment it turns to the supernatural aspect. Ironically, I was waiting for the supernatural stuff with impatience and at the moment it happened, I wanted the first half again. The mystery, the tense spaghetti Western feeling and the Tarantino vibe were very welcoming to my eyes and ears.

All those elements were replaced by dramatic…

Justin LaLiberty
Review by Justin LaLiberty ★★★★ 1

happy that someone simultaneously posed and answered the question "what if John Hyams made a Wakaliwood movie?" - utterly unclassifiable outside of genre-hybrid jargon and a total banger of mysticism, bloodshed and machismo that's unlike anything I've seen before

George Carmi
Review by George Carmi ★★★

hmmm. 

Saloum presents us with a top tier genre bending narrative. Subtle, yet effective. This movie is a tale of two halves.

The first half of this movie we are introduced to these three mercenaries who are forced to take refuge in a remote town after their plane is compromised. Early set up is a treat to watch. There are very creative and unique film-making techniques and shot selections used. The setting allows for wide beautiful landscape shots and Jean Luc Herbulot does a very good job at bringing to life this environment and making it feel like its own character. Western vibes and crime thriller vibes... this film build with various genres and that may turn some people off…

Brandon Streussnig
Review by Brandon Streussnig Liked 2

2022

Holy shit, an absolute jawdropper. A stunning, gorgeous meditation on revenge via blood spewing folklore. It’s like if halfway thru From Dusk Till Dawn, instead of vampires, our ragtag group is beset by Your Own Personal Demons. In other words it rules.  Insane how much heart this packs in a blistering 84 minutes. You’re immediately all in on the Hyenas and their survival. A few moments had me choking up hard. Most of that is made possible by the enormous screen presence of the three leads, particularly their leader Chaka played by Yann Gael. That guy is a megastar waiting to happen. Adored this. An unquantifiable, inexplicable genre mash unlike anything you’ll ever see. One of my favorites of the year.

meyi
Review by meyi ★★★½

well that was a interesting way of saying don't go to saloum

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