Benoît Poelvoorde gives his all for The Zebra Stripes (review)

Convinced that Yaya (Marc Zinga) can become a football champion, he takes him to training in Belgium…

Jose (Benoît Poelvoorde) is a football manager. His specialty: spotting promising talent in Africa. When he unearths Yaya (Marc Zinga), he takes him to Belgium to make him a champion. He is convinced that he has found the goose that lays the golden eggs. But nothing will go as planned…

At the beginning of 2014, Benoît Mariage found the star of Conveyors are waiting for a new comedy, Zebra Stripes. Coincidentally, a few days later another film was released denouncing the failings of the football business in Africa (among other things): The Crocodile of Botswangawith Thomas Ngijol and Fabrice Eboué. Two projects that are ultimately quite different. First had preferred the first one: here is our review of the Zebra Stripesto be seen again this evening on the channel specializing in sports, L’Equipe.

Welcome to Marly-Gomont: the amazing career of Marc Zinga, from Dheepan to James Bond

Burnt skin, yellowed moustache, protruding belly, pronounced Brussels accent: Benoît Poelvoorde gives his all to create an antihero of which he has the secret, one of those slightly self-satisfied, cross-eyed types who suddenly realize that their life is not as full as it seems. In a few short and precise scenes (a conversation via Skype with his ex-wife, an intrusion at his veterinarian son’s house), Benoît Mariage turns this good jerk into a fragile guy who is taking on water from all sides.

Too bad the director of the Conveyors are waiting feels compelled to go through an untimely dramatic event to highlight the redemption of a character we already loved. Beyond its convincing tragicomic dimension, Zebra Stripes presents itself as an excellent document on this form of neocolonialism that is football business, a real decoy for young Africans with a blocked horizon.

After Case départ, Thomas N’Gijol and Fabrice Eboué have a blast in Le Crocodile du Botswanga