Zum Verwechseln Ähnlich (Il a tes Yeux)
France 2017

Opening 13 Jul 2017

Directed by: Lucien Jean-Baptiste
Writing credits: Lucien Jean-Baptiste, Sébastien Mounier, Marie-Francoise Colombani
Principal actors: Aïssa Maïga, Lucien Jean-Baptiste, Zabou Breitman

Sali (Maiga) and Paul (Jean-Baptiste) have a happy marriage and are the proud owners of a flower shop in Paris. They have been trying to adopt a child for quite a while and when a baby does finally come up for adoption they are over the moon - even though little Benjamin turns out to be a white baby and they are black. This is naturally not the norm and Madame Mallet (Breitman) from social services is on the alert. She surprises the couple with unscheduled home visits hoping to find a reason to reject them as parents. In the meantime Sali is mistaken for a nanny at the pediatrician's, at the playground, etc. And to make matters worse, Sali's traditional Senegalese family finds the situation unsettling, even shocking. The world turns out not to be as tolerant as the couple thought it would be. So we have a social comedy which sends out an important message about racism as well as about adoption in respect to the opposite of already "normal" foreign adoptions (white parents/black child).

Although several of the characters (the grandmother especially) have terribly exaggerated roles - to the point of slapstick even - the movie succeeds in its message that the important part of adoption is that the parents love the child.  (Thelma Freedman)