L'Appel des Arènes (The Call of the Arena)

D: Cheikh Ndiaye, Senegal/France/Morocco/Burkina Faso 2006, 105 min, German subtitles

In Senegal, wrestlers enjoy a special status: they are athletes and wise men at the same time. A wrestler saves Nalla, a boy of good birth, from a bunch of hooligans. But wrestling has its dark side too: the stadiums are controlled by the Mafia. This is the world of Sory, who is unemployed and a sneak thief. An intense look at the way myths and social reality clash.