Immigration is a complex issue with its larger meaning representing something different to each person. This Weekend's Film Festival looks at the issue through film. These five films address the issue from the immigrants' point of view. There's the story of a cheerful Senegalese cabdriver. A Palestinian mother brings her son to America for a better life. An Irish man moves his whole family to the States for a chance at stardom. A poor factory worker becomes a drug mule in order to get a trip to the U.S. A young woman meets a violent gang member on her journey across Latin America on top of a train.
GOODBYE SOLO is the best film of 2009. Solo, played with such effortless energy by Souleymane Sy Savane, is an immigrant from Senegal, who drives a cab, but dreams of becoming a flight attendant. He is the constant optimist who sees the America Dream as something bigger than his wife does. She wants him to settle and start his own cab company. One night he picks up an old man named William, played with subtle gruff by Red West, who is willing to pay Solo $1,000 to take him to a remote mountain in 10 days. He never speaks of a return trip. Solo spends the next 10 days trying to convince William to change his mind. The hip-hop talking immigrant and an aging biker have little in common, but they become friends. Director Ramin Bahrani understands these characters fully. The force of Solo's personality drives the story. When it comes to immigrants, questions arise. Would an American-born cabbie try to stop William's deadly plan, or just take his money? Is it less about where Solo came from and more about who he is? Solo's wife is Latino and looks at him as a procrastinator. Does the ease of American culture promotes this or is Solo just a dreamer by nature? As I said in my original review, "In the way the story unfolds, the film makes us feel what its like to be its characters." The film allows us to walk in someone else's shoes and our feet fit naturally because it crafts its characters so well.