Any time you hit a festival like this you, by default, hit a lot of films blind and while you undoubtedly strike a lot of gold that way every festival also has its unrelentingly bad moments. In Philadelphia this year that was Evilenko. At this year's TIFF I've found that unfortunate film with only my second screening of the festival. Hello Les Saignantes. Much like my stay in the theater this review of the Cameroon based sci-fi film will be brief.
Set in Cameroon circa 2025 Les Saignantes is meant to serve as a social criticism of life in modern Africa, with the sex and corruption blown up on a large scale. As they say, the more thing change the more they stay the same. The titular Saignettes (or Bloodettes) are a group of high profile prostitutes. When one of their number has a high ranking politician die on her during sex she turns to a fellow Bloodette to help dispose of the body and cover the entire incident up.
I've already made my bias clear so let's get right into it ... where does this film go wrong? Pick something. Anything. Literally. The first thing you notice is that it is shot on what looks to be a mid grade home video camera, and poorly lit. Visually this would receive a failing grade as a film school project. Next you'll no doubt notice the sound track, more specifically how the length of the music cues often has nothing to do with the length of the scene they're attached to. Onc eyou're through the opening shots you are introduced to the acting - poor - and the writing - poorer - and, if you stick around long enough the 'futuristic technology' which includes an AI driven, voice activated car which a prostitute is able to fool simply by dropping her voice an octave. Amateurish in the extreme Les Saignantes simply fails on every level imaginable.
Now, before you criticize me for judging this based on an incomplete viewing, consider this. The theater was packed for this, particularly for an early morning screening of an unknown film from Cameroon. Like me a great number of people were anticipating this one, seeing a lot of potential in the scenario. How did the rest of the people in the theater respond? By the fifteen minute mark roughly a third had left. By the time I gave up the theater manager and volunteers were standing in a ring next to the entrance marvelling at how incredibly poorly the screening had gone. People hated this film. The only reason I can imagine that it has drawn any attention whatsoever is the copious T&A and, frankly, you could have made this film with the entire cast naked from start to finish and it wouldn't even begin to entice me to take another look at it.
In a year where I can easily name fifteen to twenty very deserving films that are not here for various reasons the fact that such a low grade film is here at all fankly makes me a little bit angry. There are much better things out there that are being overlooked and Les Saignantes' selection smacks of regional quota filling far more than picking the best of what's out there. Avoid this at all costs.