Set in Senegal, Umbo and Samuel is a modern fable about a small white African boy who has been taken hostage and finds himself in a cell with Umbo, a Wolof tribesman. To escape they must first communicate.

Sillig shows an assuredness as a director with his claustrophobic camera work, and through the subtlety and nuance of characteri­sation that save the film from mawkishness and sentimentality .