Dir. Moussa Sene Absa. 2007, 95 mins. 35mm print. With Lord Alajiman, Juliette Ba. Absa’s sprawling urban tale opens with a shot of a Senegalese musician being deported from Paris. Ashamed and angry, he finds himself drawn into a weapons trafficking operation by an old friend. A kind of Dakar rap musical, or contemporary urban opera, Teranga Blues is a reflection on the social mutations affecting the pride of the Senegalese people. It is surreal, lyrical, carnivalesque . . . and real. It shows how the opening and closing of the border has transformed the lives of the young: a subject to which Absa has returned with his new film, the documentary Yoole.

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