Karmen Gei

May be the most magnetic, most beautiful and bravest Carmen ever to grace a stage or film set.

The film offers plenty of powerful impressionism to make up for its lack of a coherent statement.

Directors as different as Otto Preminger and Jean-Luc Godard have taken a crack at "Carmen" and Ramaka's version is a colorful addition to the list.

Diop Gaï's performance is equally beguiling: She's both bold and mysterious, a femme fatale bursting with life.

Enormously likable, partly because it is aware of its own grasp of the absurd.

While the screen didn't really need another Carmen, it certainly needs a knockout femme fatale like Diop Gai. Hopefully, Carmen can get a much-needed rest and audiences can get much more of this stunning African icon-in-waiting.

A worthy addition to the cinematic canon, which, at last count, numbered 52 different versions.