Bolletjes blues! (2006) Reviews

• How many Caribbean-drugs-trafficking *musicals* ARE there anyway?

  huh_oh_i_c2006-08-19

  I mean, really! This could be a booming genre, folks! This film, or musical, is a total new approach of the subject of drugs trafficking, what with the Dutch recent full embrace of the morally bankrupt American War-on-Drugs. A musical! Pretty original, I have to admit. Plot-quickie: A young black man from Suriname, Spike, decides on a life of drugs-crime when he feels he needs money to have a meaningful relationship with white Girl-Next-Door Rosalie. His short cut to riches is to swallow cocaine-pellets and smuggle them from Suriname to Amsterdam, the 'Bolletjes' referred to in the title. According to the director, the music was written largely by the actors and singers themselves. The raps are good to excellent, the other songs are quite appealing, and surely well-performed. In the beginning of the film the lack of narrative can be a bit annoying, so I imagine, to someone who hasn't got an ounce of patience or sympathy towards this musical, it will appear slow in the beginning. But for those who can wait 15 to 20 minutes, the film is highly original, as a concept more than in its execution. Because although the music and story line might not be that different from others in the drugs genre, it's very refreshing to see this enacted in a familiar setting of the Bijlmer, Amsterdam and Santo Boma prison in Suriname. The acting is superb, certainly in the lead characters, as well as the supporting roles of the gangster-boss (Sugacane, as Delano) and Rosalies female sidekick played by Goldy Lakhai as Zamira.