The man we see in the beginning and all throughout the movie singing and playing an instrument at times, is there a certain thing he is supposed to be symbolizing? and I don't think anything was said in the movie about how she came to work in Rome cleaning the house, I was also wondering if i am wrong about that.
that is one thing I love about Independent films, most of them are so thought provoking. They let you fill in the missing blanks on your own.
I got the impresion that his character was used as a contrast to the more European type music that David Thewlis character is used to. And yeah nothing was said of how she got to Rome and started cleaning. My take on that was that some time passed and she was using the cleaning job as a means to put herself through medical school, and she had plans to return to Africa to treat kids there (since it looked like she was working with ill children in Africa before she left).
shareI also think this character was used to bridge the gap between her two very different lives (worlds?).
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As far as her coming to Rome, I think jgutie84 is right. She seemed to be a healer in Africa and so it would be good for her to gain a medical degree to return to Africa and help. Plus, it seems as if at the time of her husband's arrest she was living in a very, very unstable area of Africa and it probably would have been ideal to take refuge in Italy for a time.
And the man singing I think keeps the audience and Shandurai remembering where she is from, not allowing us to get lost in the current plot of her and Kinsky.
I think that old and teeth-less African singer's song and music has something to do with many common Africans' decades long yearning for peace, stability, order and independence. With his music, we keep on seeing wall posters of a yet another military dictator of Africa. In the only dream sequence of the film, we she her tearing up those posters from the wall while the singer/musician, not only performing but smiling.
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