We

Amid the current churn of French politics, We (Nous) arrives as a bracingly intelligent X-ray of the Fifth Republic. In this boldly structured documentary, every moment is there for a reason.

It’s a film which needs an investment of attention, but there is a great observational intelligence and sympathy at work.

An acute awareness of the relationship between memory, whether personal or collective, and identity emerges as the engine of “We.”

With a light, deft approach, Diop lays bare France’s gruesome, maddening postcolonial history simply by being a patient observer...Motored by Diop's curiosity and compassion...her film is clear-eyed but not cynical, hopeful but not mawkish.

An outwardly modest observational doc that builds cleverly into an epic intellectual interrogation of France's multicultural project.

A sociological travelogue of the heart and history of the French people themselves, Diop's genuine affection and connection with her subjects make this ambitious project look almost easy.

It is good to pay tribute to “small lives” ... at a time when the human rubbish that lives at the top of society, the billionaires and their celebrity hangers-on, take up so much of the media’s attention.

Diop needs more than shallow social impressions to enlist us in her cynicism.

Despite Diop’s sympathetic approach and some beautiful camerawork, the only time We takes off for me is when she accompanies her sister on her rounds.

An admirable panoramic view of the everyday dynamics, human relationships, racism, social differences and codes, the permanent nostalgia, and the survival strategies of these silent and oftentimes, forgotten communities. [Full review in Spanish]