Cannes Classics 2022

Tirailleurs (in English titled Father and Soldier) tells the story of Bakary and his son, Thierno. French soldiers take Thierno away from his family in Senegal and force him to serve the French army against Germany during WWI. Soon Bakary leaves his village and volunteers to join the army but to protect and fight for his son, who is young and easily manipulated into staying in the military service. One of the best elements of the film is the beautiful images at the beginning of the film where father and son live a happy life. When Bakary resides in his home, the colors are warm and the camera moves with the characters, providing ease and comfort. Another fantastic element is the costume design which strengthens the story’s narration. Bakary wears dark blue Senegalese clothing before wearing the military uniform, a traditional European attire with a tone of blue that is deteriorated, light, and weak.

Overall, it is a great film to watch; however, the ending deserves considerable criticism due to the disturbance it brings to the story. Tirailleurs tries to question the intricate ways French colonization devastated the natives, disrupting families as well as perpetrating psychological control over Senegalese’s own freedom to choose.  Nevertheless, the film falls short in its stance against the wrongdoings of history when the story ends with a celebration of France rather than on the Senegalese men whose story should have the glory to stand by itself.  By bringing the Arc de Triumph and The Flame of Remembrance to culminate the film, the narration pivots jarringly seeking to emancipate France. The lingering, ghost-like voice of Bakary tells viewers to remember him, along with the crimes prompted by the French towards the Senegalese people. Nonetheless, this act of remembrance gets overshadowed by the French monument and the strong French perspective. All can be tied back to the director, Mathieu Vadepied, a French, white filmmaker whose film was funded by a public television channel.  In other words, the ending should not come as a surprise, but I had high hopes for the final image to align itself with the story about resisting French colonization and, yet, this too gets taken over by the French.