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The African Doctor (2016)

The African Doctor (2016)

7.2

A feel-good story of one French village’s first African family

Movie

Belgium, France
French, Lingala
Comedy, Drama
2016

What it's about

1975. When Seyolo Zantoko, a doctor from the Congo who has managed, along with his family, to flee tyranny, is hired by the mayor of a small town in northern France, he begins a struggle to adapt to a new life and gain the trust of the prejudiced villagers.

The take

In this French movie based on a true story, a med-school graduate from Congo is offered a job as the doctor to the president of Zaire. He refuses and chooses instead to move to a small town in France in hopes of getting French citizenship and securing a better future for his children.

The story, which starts in 1975, is set in a village where people had never seen a Black person. To that, Seyolo, the doctor, says: “so what? Now they will.”

The culture clash is both villagers-to-new-arrivals and the other way. Seyolo tells his family that he was hired in a village “north of Paris”, but all they hear is “Paris”, only to be shocked by the state of the rainy and muddy countryside village.

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