Film Inquiry talks with director Jean Luc Herbulot on his film Saloum and African film. “I’ve been working in Africa now for, what, four years? I was born in Africa, I grew up here, and studied in France. And after that, I spent four or five, if not six years in Los Angeles working in the business trying to make movies but it wasn’t working. But at the same time, it was my education to understand the business, same thing with France.

So just looking around me, I was like, ‘Ok, what’s missing?’

And I just turned to Africa, and I was like, ‘That’s missing.’ Yeah.

The myths there are the myths that I’ve grown up with, the heroes that I didn’t have, the stories, the political elements that you have in Africa, they’re all passionate and fascinating. And we have like fifty countries in Africa. So you have like, fifty possibilities of whatever you want to do. So Senegal was one of them.”

(There’s a little bit on the influence of Red Dead Redemption 2, as well)