Blue Rain With a Little Red in It

Rain the Color of Blue with a Little Red in It

Prince goes Sahel in this colorful homage to Purple Rain. Set among the sub-Saharan Tuareg people, and reputedly the first feature film in their Tamashek language (which has no word for "purple," hence the title). Resplendent in a purple robe and matching chopper, smoking hot guitarist Mdou Moctar arrives in a music-mad Niger town and sets about wooing a local beauty, clashing with his pious father, and fencing with the jealous king of the local scene (Kader Tanoutanoute, as wily and dapper as Morris Day) until their climactic six-string shootout.

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Popular reviews

Unknown Pleasures

If Wakaliwood is The Wire then this is Treme, a wildly more didactic and nuanced version of the same rich tapestry, but without the killer genre hook. A community brimming with its own stories and artistic and cultural values representing itself on-screen, for basically the first time, filtered through western pop iconography. I'm crying.
Film Number 18 in Blair's March Around the World, 2021

Country: Niger

A version of Purple Rain filmed in Niger which has a long gangly title because in its native tongue there's no word for "purple"? I'm in! Actually, I've had knowledge of this for a few years and the time finally came for me to rent this 75 minute picture on Vimeo and give it a whirl. A few years ago I saw Purple Rain.. theatrically, right after Prince passed away. That was quite the experience; my opinion of the movie was aided by how wild some of the ladies in the crowd got at seeing The Purple One. It was to the point that I was surprised panties…
I'm unconscionably rusty on my Purple Rain so I can't speak as authoritatively as I would like to on what this takes and doesn't take from it, but I do feel comfortable asserting that it borrows the earlier movie's trick of some making superficially non-compelling dramatic scenes work either through awesome music (not as awesome as Prince, but still) or subtle force of emotion - the use of amateur actors and heavy ADR can seem clumsy at first blush but it didn't take long for me to start thinking about how real feelings were running through even the clumsiest pieces of dialogue or dramatic contrivances here.

That's beside the point, though, because I really like the music, framed as it is here by the mythic power of the electric guitar. Also fascinating to see the West African cell phone music trading network in action, which I didn't even know existed before I saw this movie.
Part of March Around the World 2021
Country: Niger

Yet another highlight of this challenge, yet another film inspired by a 1984 classic that I haven't seen, and once again so good that I'm afraid the original won't live up to the comparison (the previous film was the Indonesian Terminator ripoff Lady Terminator; while the inspiration for this one was Purple Rain). I love this film's mellow energy, which is probably very different from Purple Rain; here, even when characters get into arguments, you wouldn't necessarily know it without the subtitles. And it doesn't come across as wooden acting; instead, it comes across as a different way of expressing emotion, just like Mdou Moctar's music occupies this space that will…
Story of a young guitarist in a town in Niger, who tries to become a professional musician. All in all I didn´t care much for the music. I´m not familiar with this style. The area and the town doesn´t offer much for a movie or the filmmaker maybe didn´t find much of interest there. The staging also isn´t very entertaining. The pictures are pin sharp and there are some beautiful atmospheric shots. The actors are absolutely ok. One gets some kind of an idea of the life of this sub group but to me the investment of € 4,20 wasn't worth it.

letterboxd.com/eudorafletcher/list/world-cinema/
Christopher Kirkley directs an unexpected gem of a little film, a loose remake of Prince's Purple Rain. Made on a shoe-string budget in the west African country of Niger, it is unabashedly amateur in a lot of respects, but irresistibly endearing. Even the title itself forces a genuine smile, the Tamasheq language having no word for the colour purple. It's symbolic of the creativity from the Tuareg musicians in the film: soulful songs emanating from the desert landscapes, feeling as miraculous as squeezing water from a stone. Music is the driving force of this movie, not just an ethnographic homage to an iconic Prince picture, but also a showcase of some splendid Saharan sounds.
This was a complete joy to watch. It's a loose remake of PURPLE RAIN shot on a shoestring budget in Niger (the cumbersome title comes from the fact that there is no word for purple in the Tamashek language). The writing is stilted and the acting is wooden but it's a fucking remake of PURPLE RAIN shot on a shoestring budget in Niger. It's such a cool statement of the universal power of art and music that I don't really care about its technical limitations. The dude drives around the desert on a purple motorcycle in sparkly purple robes. Also, the music is great and the film offered a unique window into a different culture. What more could you want?
Ein nigerianisches Remake von PURPLE RAIN als afrikanische Pop-Oper mit den Mitteln des V-Cinema, die von der künstlerischen Kraft der Cultural Appropration zeugt. Ganz famos. 💖
Seen again with Mdou Moctar live and in person was a real treat and bumped my appreciation for the movie up even higher. A unique blend of documentary and fiction that's pure pleasure, a new favorite.
How do you stealthily remake Purple Rain in a language that doesn't even have a word for the color purple? As gung-ho as you can.
Mdou Moctar is a killer guitarist. Onstage he rips through brain-knotting runs and trills with smily nonchalance, keeping a steady pulse on the bass strings while he slices the air with treble.

I can tell you this firsthand, because I saw him play today. Which is pretty wild, considering he's from Agadez, Niger, in the Sahel, and until recently he only played at weddings and his songs were only available via local cellphone trading networks.

Chris Kirkley, the music archivist who's made it possible for me to hear, let alone see, Mdou Moctar, has also done the world the favor of building this docufiction/loose remake of Purple Rain around Moctar's life.

Made with a lovable technical roughness, Akounak Tedalat Taha…
Rating - a decent 6

Apologies for any typos and the like - I hate writing anything of this nature on a phone but needs must.

Colour me surprised would be apt. Whenever possible, I like to try a film from a country I'm unfamiliar with and I've never seem a Nigerien production.

It's a great film which does suffer from mildly comical dialogue and odd phrasing. And yes, it's an unashamed remake or reimagining of Purple Rain, but the plot itself is old hat.

Still, there is lots of plus points as well. The cinematography ignites with colour against the desert backdrop, most notably the protagonist's purple motorbike.

For me, it's the music that plays centre stage in this…