Search - Madame Brouette on DVD

Independent Woman Seeks Companion Who'll Love and Honor Her

Diaspora Chic | Silver Spring, MD | 09/16/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Rokhaya Niang beautifully stands out as Mati, "Madame Brouette", a Muslim raised divorcee with a young daughter. She sells her wares in a wheelbarrow while looking out for the women in her village. She isn't afraid to speak her mind. She helps her friend Ndaxt get out of her abusive marriage. They live with Mati's father who doesn't believe in divorce. Mati doesn't conform to the tradition of a woman being a wife and mother alone. She values her independence despite what everyone else thinks.

She meets Naago, a morally corrupt cop while on the street with her wheelbarrow in tow. Naago takes an interest in the single mother and even befriends her daughter giving her money and Coca-Cola. She is at first not taken by him but on New Year's she finds herself falling in love with him. She doesn't know that he is involved with other women and is in debt to a pimp named London.

Her father puts her out of the house when he learns that she is pregnant outside of the marriage. She goes to Naago for help and finds out that he isn't who he is but is yet willing to hang on to him until things take a turn for the worse.

"Madame Brouette" isn't a musical, although there is a chorus and the daughter sings about a partridge that wants to be free. The partridge is symbolic for personal freedom. Humans want to be free. Despite Mati's independence, she was expected to conform to subservient roles of women. Naago wasn't free from his debts. Naago's involvement in corruption prisoned him like the prisoners in jail. The tragedy of Mati and Naago has created a battle of the sexes and exposed the system for what it is.

"Madame Brouette" was an interesting movie to watch. I highly recommend it.



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Wonderful music and cinematography

K. Gordon | 04/29/2010

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Wildly colorful, with great music. This is a soundtrack to own, and it elevates the film itself.

A woman in Senegal apparently kills her abusive husband. An odd, semi-comic police investigation

is intercut with flashbacks of the events leading up to the murder. Moments of the

performances and writing are uneven, but the bold cinematography and ear-catching

soundtrack make it worthwhile."

Great Suspenseful Movie

Boris B. Delaine | Charlotte, NC USA | 11/09/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is an insightful movie to watch as well as a suspenseful movie with a surprise ending."