The Cambria Film Festival, running February 5-9, has given SLO Review the opportunity to preview many of the more than 80 full-length and short films that make up its 2025 program schedule. All-access passes, live screening only passes, and passes to view films virtually after the festival are available now.
A Precious Film
On My Way (Sur Mon Chemin) is the story of a soulful search for identity and connection in France, where Congolese-born Doudou Ngumbu (who plays himself) does not feel a sense of belonging.
Writer/director/actor Thierry Obadia creates a cinematic world where viewers will find themselves reflecting on their own life decisions and experiences as they time-travel through Doudou’s life.
Inspired by a true story, the film opens with the three-year-old Doudou abandoned by his mother and embraced by his grandmother, Josephine, who has suffered her own loss through the death of her son, Doudou’s father. Josephine softens life’s blows by offering her grandson sweet cakes, and we see that sentiment repeated as Doudou finds other maternal figures to help care for him.
His origin story established, the 95-minute film quickly moves to the adult Doudou who leaves his grandmother in search of his identity, hitchhiking across France following his deceased father’s footsteps to train and box in the same ring where his father once fought. His grandmother worries for his safety as a black man in a largely white culture, but Doudou tells her, “I’m done believing the world is ugly.”
His belief is repeatedly challenged by those he meets, but for every threat along his road of discovery, Doudou moves from one teacher to another who profoundly impacts the young man’s perceptions of the world.
The film’s central message seems to be that whoever we meet and however short or long the relationship we forge with them, we will be changed. They will be changed.
The technical aspects of the movie include scene changes that are jarringly abrupt at times, though that may be intentional, coinciding with Doudou’s sometimes rough-edged search for himself and the difficult questions he seems to be asking: Am I a lover or a fighter? Am I lost or am I found?
The movie’s sound and color palettes create the feeling of viewing the story from the inside. From the tangible sounds of crunching gravel when Doudou traverses dirt roads, to monochromatic and complementary color choices, the film is a cross between art and documentation.
Much of the film is in golden hues or monochrome, and nearly every fight scene is draped in blue except one. In that one scene, the color remains in the golden hues, and Doudou appears to fight, not in an isolated aggression, but with a deeper sense of purpose.
When his next fight is once again blue, Doudou’s fate is less certain.
But he is learning that violence begets violence; kindness begets kindness; and tragedy is an ever-present part of even a beautiful life.
Doudou’s story is deeply layered, contrasting pain with joy and healing with festering old wounds. Doudou is faced with the question of whether to move forward or stay behind in worn perceptions of old stories.
What he chooses and how he makes those choices will keep audiences glued to this precious tale.
Screenings of No Way Home (run time 106 minutes, in French with English subtitles), sponsored by John & Mary Nixon and Chris Storey & Tina Masiak, are at 10 a.m. Thursday, February 6 and at 1 p.m. Sunday, February 9.