“Gavagai, and other misunderstandings”: chronicle of ordinary racism by filmmaker Ulrich Köhler

Welcoming the stranger and hospitality are the themes that run through the tragedy of Euripides, Medea, on which the plot of Gavagai, and other misunderstandings by the German Ulrich Köhler. The film, which is released on Wednesday July 22, explores the subject through the prism of racism.

The actors Nourou (Jean-Christophe Folly) and Maja Tervooren (Maren Eggert), who had an affair, meet in Berlin to present an adaptation of Medea directed by filmmaker Caroline Lescot (Nathalie Richard). When the Senegalese actor arrives at his hotel, the security agent forbids him from smoking at the entrance to the building. Nourou ignores it. But when he enters the hotel where the actor is to stay, the security guard asks him for his papers. Maja, who has just joined him, intervenes. She considers the incident intolerable and asks the hotel to take appropriate measures. Nourou would have preferred to let it go.

This clash is reminiscent of another. It occurred a few months earlier, in Senegal, on set. And it is on this stage that Gavagai, and other misunderstandings gets off to a flying start. Caroline did not at all appreciate Maja’s acting during a crucial scene for her feature film. The argument between the two women is violent. For his part, Nourou was trying to manage his father who played a small role in the film. He complained of being treated like extras who, unlike the stars, did not have access to proper catering.

This two-speed world has been transposed to Germany. But here, Nourou is the one who is mistreated. The racism he is subjected to will undermine a stay that the actor wanted to place under the sign of love. In Senegal, Nourou was at home, peaceful despite the tensions with his father. In Germany, Maja is at home, too. And as a show of hospitality, she is determined to defend the dignity of her former lover. Even if it means being insulted, too, by the zealous security guard.

Mirror effect

Ulrich Köhler reunites with Jean-Christophe Folly and Nathalie Richard with whom he had filmed Sleeping sickness (2011) in Cameroon. Gavagai, and other misunderstandings is also inspired by an incident that Jean-Christophe Folly experienced during the premiere of Sleeping sickness. A security agent wanted to check the actor and the filmmaker intervened like the character Maja in the feature film. The German filmmaker’s latest work is, in substance and form, the expression of an empathetic gesture which allows us to put ourselves, for a few minutes, in the shoes of all those who are victims of racism and other forms of ostracism.

In this mise en abyme – a film is shot within the film – the scenes produced in Senegal and Germany respond to each other. They are filmed in the same spaces – cars, hotel rooms, houses… and sometimes at the same time of day. Which underlines both the parallelism of events and highlights the inversion of the balance of power mentioned in the adaptation of Medea. Euripides’ heroine is now assimilated to a barbarian because of her magical powers in particular. Unlike her husband Jason, of whom she was an indispensable ally, and her children, Medea will not find asylum in Corinth, in the kingdom of Creon, where they arrive after fleeing their lands of Iolcos. Jason married Creon’s daughter, Creuse, and divorced Medea. The latter, in Caroline’s fiction revisited in Senegal, is a white woman ostracized by black people. The way the character is treated foreshadows the racist incident to which Nourou will be a victim in real life.

Soft plot for hot topic

However, the scenes of Gavagai, and other misunderstandings follow each other without really catching on. You have to wait until the last third of the film for the story to gain substance. Köhler’s remarks, which are otherwise very subtle, then take full shape. With a few key scenes, the filmmaker demonstrates that context matters when it comes to racism. When decorum allows him to be clearly identified as a star, Nourou escapes it. The situation changes when this context disappears.

The film perfectly illustrates the primitive nature of racist expression which is increasingly uninhibited and almost institutional as current events prove. A Paraguayan senator or a Spanish Prime Minister openly attacked the captain of the Blues, Kylian Mbappé, and the entire French team. A few weeks earlier, it was President Donald Trump who represented the former presidential couple formed by the Obamas as monkeys in a jungle of which he was the king. These abuses occur in a world where the far right thrives. Like regimes which persecute part of their populations like in India or China.

Gavagai, and other misunderstandings is also a nice nod to the world of Senegalese filmmaker Djibril Diop Mambéty: he revisits the famous horned motorcycle of Touki Bouki (1973). Just like the character of Caroline is reminiscent of the director Claire Denis who spent her childhood in Cameroon (where Köhler also filmed) and whose filmography remains marked by the African continent. As racism takes on intolerable proportions in the world, Ulrich Köhler’s film does useful work despite its imperfections.

The sheet

Gender : Drama
Realization : Ulrich Kohler
With : Jean-Christophe Folly, Maren Eggert, Nathalie Richard, Anna Diakhere Thiandoum
Country : Germany, France
Duration : 1h31
Exit : July 22, 2026
Distributer : New Story

Synopsis: During the chaotic filming of an adaptation of Medea in Senegal, German actress Maja finds refuge in an affair with her partner Nourou. A few months later, they found themselves at the premiere of the film in Berlin. Feelings resurface, but a racist incident disrupts their reunion. While the ancient tragedy plays out on screen, a modern drama unfolds in real life.