"I Bring What I Love" follows N'Dour and his international band as they promote the album in Europe and deal with the fallout at home -- declared sacrilegious, it was the singer's first flop there in decades. The film's insights are strongest when it dwells on those details of journeyman pop stardom and African city life. The twist that comes at the end is also brilliant: When "Egypt" earns N'Dour a Grammy, that American emblem of success, he goes from heretic to hero in one fell swoop.
Advertisement
'Youssou N'Dour: I Bring What I Love'
MOVIE REVIEW
This documentary is an exemplary look at the African superstar's life and the fallout over his album 'Egypt.'
Advertisement
Vasarhelyi, whose film about Kosovo, "A Normal Life," won acclaim in 2003, is not a music specialist. "I Bring What I Love" begins with an overview of N'Dour's work that's tedious for fans and not that illuminating for newcomers. Things improve vastly once Vasarhelyi turns her lens on the problems that surrounded "Egypt," which are resonant enough to transform an artist's overview into an exemplary story about religious conflict, art and the global dissemination of popular culture.
It always comes back to the music. The concert footage around which Vasarhelyi organizes her story -- some of which was shot in Senegal, much during the European "Egypt" tour -- reveals why N'Dour is one of the world's greatest pop artists. His singing effortlessly shifts between the conversational and the sublime, and as a bandleader, he continues to enact a revolutionary marriage of traditional forms and pop influences.
N'Dour is the film's unstoppable force, handsome and radiating joy. He's the kind of performer who is larger than life but always seems like one of the family. "I Bring What I Love" will be enjoyable to viewers who already know N'Dour's work, but its great service comes in reminding American audiences that some of pop's most powerful work takes place outside our borders.
--
ann.powers@latimes.com
--
'Youssou N'Dour: I Bring What I Love'
MPAA rating: PG for thematic elements and brief smoking
Running time: 1 hour, 42 minutes
Playing: At Laemmle's Sunset 5, West Hollywood; Edwards University Town Center, Irvine
