Rain The Color Blue With A Little Red In It

Rain the Color Blue with a Little Red in It (Akounak Tedalat TahaTazoughai) (2015)

Runtime: 75 minutes

Directed by: Christopher Kirkley

Starring: Mdou Moctar, Kader Tanoutanuote, Abdoulaye Souleymane, Fatimata Falo, Rhaicha Ibrahim

From: Quite a few companies from Niger

A version of Purple Rain filmed in Niger which has a long gangly title because in its native tongue there's no word for “purple”? I'm in! Actually, I've had knowledge of this for a few years and the time finally came for me to rent this 75 minute picture on Vimeo and give it a whirl. A few years ago I saw Purple Rain.. theatrically, right after Prince passed away. That was quite the experience; my opinion of the movie was aided by how wild some of the ladies in the crowd got at seeing The Purple One. It was to the point that I was surprised panties weren't thrown at the screen! That helped alleviate the feelings I had concerning The Kid being a real A-hole for much of the film. His behavior was explained-what a horrible family he had-and he finally changed at the end but that was striking to me.

In this case, Niger is a Muslim country so certain elements are sanitized and this is more “inspired” by the film than a straight-up remake. Sure, some story beats are similar, lead Mdou Moctar (a real life music star in that region of the world) wears a purple outfit and rides around on a purple motorcycle-wrapped that color DIY style-but the lead here isn't a terrible jerk and his dad is against him playing guitar due to the “rock and roll lifestyle”, which was one of several elements taken from Moctar's real life exploits. He finds romance and yes there is a version of Morris Day's character which serves as a rival who is unhappy that this upstart moved to “his” city.

As should be expected, this was rough around the edges and is not as good as the original. That is not meant as an insult as the film is still fine and was interesting for me. Getting to see a star I otherwise wouldn't have known at all was nice, and so was seeing life in a country I know little about. Specifically, it's the region of the country occupied by the Tuareg people, and the city of Agadez in the middle of the country. But most important is the music. No, it was not covers of the Purple Rain soundtrack, which is for the best as how can anyone compare to Prince? Rather, it's music native to the region and while it is different to my Western ears, those tunes (whether electric or acoustic) are rather catchy and that was pleasant to listen to. Henceforth, I was happy to have finally checked out how a famous movie from the mid 80's inspired a story that was still unique to a specific region halfway across the world.