A young man with a bum leg appears on a stage amid hearty cheers, and the camera captures his performance for a short period of time. The film goes on to follow the life of the sweet-hearted 25-year-old Grigris that dreams of becoming a dancer, despite his paralyzed leg. Nonetheless, his dreams are put on hold when his uncle falls critically ill and Grigris misguidedly chooses to work for local petrol traffickers in order to help. On top of that, he falls in love with a hooker working in the neighborhood. This recent film by Chad’s great Mahamat-Saleh Haroun is a story mixed with dance, music and love. As forewarned by the protagonist’s exciting, yet bizarre, dancing in the first sequence, Grigris is quite different from the director’s previous works in that it drifts from the father-son relationship or African identity and instead focuses on a universal love story. The love story between the crippled protagonist and a despised prostitute seems a typical melodrama, but the protagonist’s innocence and calmness rooted in the African continent is amazingly authentic. The ending culminates with the director’s affectionate, embracing gaze at their love. (RHEE Soue-won)