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LAAMB, AN AFRICAN STORY

ANG FILM - as PROD

Drama - Development 2012

The young boys of Dakar have a dream, to become rich and famous wrestlers like their idols the Laamb champions. The story of Ringman and his friend Moiise is a story about the desire to climb the social ladder and on society's ability to offer them an ambitious, and at the same time realistic future

- Year of production
- 2012
- Genres
- Drama
- Countries
- ITALY
- Languages
- FRENCH
- Budget
- 0.6 - 1 M$
- Duration
- 80 mn
- Synopsis
- In Senegal the national sport is not soccer, but one called Laamb, an ancient sort of wrestling similar to the graeco-roman wrestling, that fills the country's arenas from north to south.
  Earlier, the winner of the “mbaapat”, the village tournament, brought home a sheep, a cow or a bag of cereals. Today the champions are true stars. They dress like american rappers and have caché between 150.000/200.000 dollars per match.
  In senegal of today the laamb has become a business attracting anyone who wants to climb the pyramid of success.
  The enormous focus on laamb in television and advertisements leads most senegalese kids to dream of becoming a wrestler, thus homologating their desires, imposing on new generations a model of success almost entirely based on values such as richness and success.
  For Ringman, a 14 year old boy born and raised in a shantytown of Dakar, laamb never really had any appeal. At least no more than his collection of lost keys, his favourite hobby.
  Ringman is sort of a living paradox. He's tall, strong and majestic like a baobab, but has a shy and sensible soul, full of imagination.
  A romantic adventurer trapped in the figure of a wrestler.
  The death of his father and his family's growing instability pushes him to leave the cloud he lives in, forcing him to become a man in order to finally help his family.
  His best friend, Moiise, an ambitious and crafty street guy, convinces him that together they will become celebrities in the world of laamb.
  He dreams to become a manager, the Don King of laamb and Ringman as his champion.
  With the help of Mr.Tank, a failed ex wrestler, Ringman and Moiise put their plan into life training hardly.
  The growing lack of communication with his mother, and the desire to make her proud of him, strengthens his motivation day by day, and at the same time drawing him away from his true nature.
  The big chance for the two boys is the participation in the junior tournament that guarantees the winner access to the county's most famous school of laamb.
  Not everything works according to plan though.
  The travel in the rickety minibus to reach Chiapata where the tournament takes place becomes the occation for a familiar reconciliation and a return to their daily life.
- Beginning of shooting
- Nov 01, 2012