movie "Cartas de Alou"

Just saw the above titled movie about a Senegalese immigrant who comes to Spain illegally by boat, in the end, gets deported and is seen attempting once more to return to Spain by boat. What do i think about the movie? Well, it was made in the early 1990s when i imagine the immigration topic wasnt in the news as much as it is now, although it was then that the whole "patera" issue came into the headlines after a tragic incident so i guess maybe it was already in the news. So it starts off rather dramatically with the boat ride, one person actually falls off, but later we find out that he is alive and is in Spain. in fact, thats the same person who Alou finds himself with in the boat at the end, reattempting to enter Spain. One thing i can´t grasp though and seems very inverosimile is how perfect Alou´s spanish is when in the beginning, he couldnt speak a word! As usual, the issues of racism, exploitation, solidarity, love etc are raised and treated in the movie, effectively i would say. One can describe Alou as an ambitious immigrant who holds on to his friend Mulai in Barcelona almost like a dream of everything which the West is supposed to represent. He meets Mulai finally but in many ways he is disappointed. He admires Mulai but also wants to seek better, to have his own life, but with dignity, and legally too of course, which Mulai cant give him,Mulai leaves his flat with his spanish wife and child and leaves it to Alou and another compatriot. Alou, at the moment, was working in the dump, collecting old appliances which could be repaired in some way. he finds a heater and behind his boss´s back, takes it home and he and his compatriot celebrate when they are able to light it. However, as to be predicted, the said heater only brings tragedy as in the end, it kills the friend.
the movie also attempts to highlight the African immigrant as a subject with a culture of his own, with its traditions, its language etc. Many times, the dialogue evolves in the african language, we see a scene where they pray in congregation in the cave, and then the burial of the friend and the walk to the cemetery where they chant and do a kind of "janaza" before they place the coffin in the slot.there are some harsh racist scenes, for instance, when alou, this time, picking fruits, throws some to his friends from a box during the lunch break. A spaniard who sees him orders him to leave the fruits adding that only the fallen ones from the tree are for them. alou breaks out into a fight with the guy and has to leave before a scene occurs and the police intervene. Then there´s another scene in the bar where he enters and asks for a coke, several times, and is ignored. he serves himself and is violently told to get lost, that there is no place for him here, that his people only bring trouble, more or less.Then there is his love encounter with a Spanish woman who helps her father in a bar. When the father realises that there is something between the two, he tells Alou to get lorse, albeit discreetly, that he doesnt want problems for his only daughter... in the end, they meet secretly and it is during one of these meetings, when Alou accompanies her to take the train back, that he is stopped by police and escorted to the station when he admits he doesnt have papers. his girlfrend witnesses this from the train.it is interesting to note too that once again in his home town, he realises that this is not where he belongs, he says that he now knows how to treat whites and that he is gonna try again...all this in a letter to his friend Mulai.
The film has been described as "una película de denuncia" which sought to highlight the precarious conditions of the immigrant in Spain. this was one of the first Spanish films to treat this topic. One critic describes the director´s attempt in the foll. words- Montxo Armendáriz consigue en Las cartas de Alou un film que es al mismo tiempo comprometido, riguroso y objetivo. Al denunciar este problema social huye de los planteamientos extremos y de las situaciones dramáticas que fácilmente provocan la identificación sentimental del público, pero que no tienen eficacia alguna como reconocimiento crítico de una situación de la que todo el mundo es, en cierto modo, responsable.