The River

Directed by Mama Keïta

With Stomy Bugsy, Vincent Byrd Le Sage, Aurélie Coulibaly, Doc Gynéco and Capucine Ackermann

“The River” ponders whether you can go home again, particularly if you’ve never been there. When Alfa (French rapper Stomy Bugsy) kills his drug-dealer boss in retaliation for a friend’s death, his brother cryptically suggests he leave Paris and “go toward the river.” Accompanied by sassy Senegalese cousin Marie (Auriele Coulibay), he embarks on a road trip back to his disdained African roots. Pic possesses a picaresque charm, plus feisty persona of Marie. But Bugsy is so unflaggingly morose, it’s hard to understand what Marie sees in him. Pic, yet to find a distrib in France, stands little chance in the U.S.