The film Adú by director Salvador Calvo hits theaters to make us reflect on the humanitarian drama of immigration involving a child called Adú. From the hand of a six-year-old Cameroonian boy, we will travel to Africa with the hope of reaching the promised land, Spain.
Adú Film Review
Adú is one of the films that has made me reflect the most in recent times. It is completely necessary to empathize with the problems of the so-called Third World. Adú is one of those six years old immigrants who, literally risked his life crossing Africa and then the Mediterranean to reach Spain. Because in his small village there is nothing left and it nothing means to him anymore, not even having the hope of surviving one more sunrise because of mafias or hunger. When they take away the most basic thing, the right to live, you only have one way left. And that instinct is to activate the survival mechanism that we all have inside and that can lead you to risk your life on a boat or jump as long as you can with a barbed wire fence and policeman. The desperation to survive, there is no more.
But what is Adú about?
On the one hand, we will enter Africa with the story of Adú and Massar, in which we will accompany them since their flight from Cameroon in their desperate attempt to reach Mount Gurugú. On the other hand, the parent-child relationship between an environmental activist concerned with saving elephants in a reserve and his wayward daughter, and finally, the work carried out by three Spanish police officers in the controversial fence in Melilla.
Perhaps here, in rich countries, or so we believe, it is difficult for us to put ourselves in the shoes of those immigrants because we are too lethargic in our comfortable way of life, invaded by hateful political speeches, and submerged in the motto of “we can do nothing”. But what if a film showed you in two hours of footage two true stories like those of Adú and Massar? Reflection is inevitable and that, precisely, is the best of the proposal of its director Salvador Calvo.
The triple plot that Adú proposes will lead us into a reality that, despite being very close and continuously in the news, we seem distant to it. Perhaps the media and politicians have already taken it upon themselves to gradually make us immune to a reality that, when viewed from the front, is frightening.
Three Stories with Rightful Narratives
Salvador Calvo chooses to tell us these three plots in an intertwined way with one purpose, to make us see three completely different realities on the same subject that will lead the viewer to reflect on various aspects of the film during the days following its viewing. It is impossible for the story of Adú and Massar to leave anyone indifferent.
Point of View: The First World
The plot that will almost “annoy” will be the one starring Luis Tosar and Anna Castillo, two great actors in which we are dealing with that have no place to show off. Its plot is intended to be a necessary counterpoint to that of the two young Cameroonians. Its characters pose the typical superfluous problems of the so-called First World, which although they are the typical “nonsense” that we all worry about every day and that would have a solution as fast as a mere conversation, are plunged into the most absolute ridiculousness when facing directly with the story of these two boys fleeing from hell.
The Strength of the Film: Adú and Massar
Although we understand the reasons for its director to make us see these three realities at the same time, the viewer will be left wanting to see and learn more about the story of Adú and Massar. Even messing up the story when the film focuses on the other two stories. It is clear where is the strength of the plot of the film, and its interpretations.
Interpretations of Two Young Discoveries
And it is that Moustapha Oumarou and Adam Nourou are the two great discoveries of the film. The strength of their performances brings such realism to the film that at times we will find ourselves immersed in a documentary and not in a fictional film.
The film Adú is one of those necessary proposals on the billboard. It tells us a solid and forceful story, especially when it focuses on the story of Adú and Massar. It is literally impossible that his story does not impact the viewer and make us reflect on our comfortable way of life and on the humanitarian, drama lived by millions of people from whom only the Mediterranean separates us.
