Samba (Omar Sy), an immigrant from Senegal, has been living in France illegally for the past ten years, working small jobs. When he lands a stable position as a dishwasher, he thinks he will finally be able to legalize his status. He goes to the authorities to initiate the paperwork, and to his surprise he gets arrested. He now faces deportation, and is held in an immigration detention center while his case is being reviewed. This is how he meets Alice (Charlotte Gainsbourg), a volunteer at an NGO offering legal assistance to immigrants. The two feel an immediate, yet bashful, connection, although they are too shy and too aware of their differences to act on their mutual attraction. This repressed romance, however, turns out to be only a minor element of the plot. Samba gets released from the detention center with an obligation to leave the French territory, which means that he will not be deported but must leave France on his own as soon as possible. Thus we follow his day-to-day survival as an illegal immigrant. He is back at the bottom of the well, again working small jobs and forced, more than ever, to stay under the radar. Yet despite the stress and anxiety, Samba remains optimistic and manages to keep smiling.

Adapted from Delphine Coulin’s novel Samba pour la France (Seuil, 2011), the film, unfortunately, delivers a dampened and unnecessarily sentimental presentation of the immigrant experience. Coulin based her book on the people she met while working at an NGO assisting illegal immigrants. She gathered their stories and created a narrative that recounts the hardships they go through on daily basis (eating from the trash, sleeping in filthy basements, etc.). However, for the film adaption, the directors obviously opted not to portray the immigrant condition from a particularly grim perspective. Instead they emphasize the bright side of things, depicting the funny aspects of Samba’s misfortunes, such as when he grows a grotesque mustache to resemble the picture on his fake ID, or says that he has become so frightened of anyone with a uniform that he runs away from the mailman. Samba is a truly lovable character, with a kind heart and a contagious laugh, and this is undoubtedly why Omar Sy, a successful comedian on French television, was cast for the part. (Sy was voted “most favorite celebrity in France” in December 2012, according to the popular ranking by the Journal du dimanche.) Nevertheless in Samba these qualities ironically render his character less than captivating.

This is especially evident compared to the other immigrants with whom he interacts, who are more charismatic and better developed. There is Lamouna (Younga Fall), Samba’s uncle, who serves as both a roommate and a mentor. There is also Wilson (Tahar Rahim), an illegal immigrant from Algeria, whom Samba befriends at the employment agency. Wilson passes for Brazilian (creating a musical accent and a lively personality) because that background works better with women. Finally there is Jonas (Issaka Sawadogo), a refugee from Congo-Brazzaville, whom Samba meets at the detention center and with whom he develops a brotherly friendship. Jonas has arguably the most fascinating backstory. He fled the civil war in the Congo, crossed the desert by foot, and entered Europe illegally through Spain in order to seek political asylum in France and hopefully marry the love of his life, Gracieuse (Liya Kebede).

For his previous collaboration with this tandem of directors, Omar Sy was the first black person to win Best Actor at the Césars (the French equivalent of the Oscars) for his performance as Driss in the surprise hit The Intouchables (2011). In the film Driss, an ex-con who works as a caretaker, forms an unlikely, funny, and tender friendship with his rich quadriplegic patient, Philippe (François Cluzet). The movie finished first that year at the French box office and ultimately became the second highest-grossing French film of all time. In The Intouchables the directors brilliantly managed to tackle many of the serious issues faced by minorities and immigrants in France (low income, housing projects, poor/violent neighborhood, etc.) while still finding the right balance in terms of tone and plot to make use of Sy’s irresistibly humorous persona. The details we are given about Driss’s background (having been adopted by his aunt as an infant to compensate for her inability to conceive, the annoyances of sharing a small apartment with multiple siblings, his criminal record, etc.) make him a multidimensional character and explain his attitude and perspective on life. In The Intouchables these serve as a wonderful contrast to Philippe’s bourgeois manners, tastes, and lifestyle.

Unfortunately, in Samba, what we know about the protagonist’s background does not explain his cheery and positive mindset. The tone of the movie is inconsistent, vacillating between drama and light comedy, while the hero’s generally light-hearted approach to life as an illegal immigrant does not seem appropriate and also betrays the essence of the novel. It is not a boring movie, but it is a disappointing one that fails to truly move the spectator or inspire a genuine connection with the main characters. Surely the captivating subject matter of Coulin’s novel, an adequate budget, and the talented team of directors and actors should have resulted in a more satisfying film.