Djibril, a young Senegaleseimmigrant, has been trying to make a life for himself in the streets of Harlem in New York. An aspiring musician, he hopes to one day score a record deal, but after four years in the United States he still scrapes together a living by selling CDs on the street and taking on gigs as a courier with the help of his moped. To raise enough money to make an album, Djibril agrees to work for Bekay, a pimp and loan shark. Djilbri's mission to fulfill his dream is interrupted when he meets Trini, a prostitute who works for Bekay. Djibril risks everything to save Trini from her squalid life.
In a positive review, Wesley Morris of The Boston Globe wrote, "'Restless City' is tumescent with atmosphere", and "there’s a dreamy immediacy to life in [Dosunmu’s] Harlem as opposed to the drugginess of life" of other films.[4] Ernest Hardy of The Village Voice said, "Told in an elliptical style with a pacing and jagged rhythms that take some getting used to, the thrust and power of the film lies in its poetic imagery, in the way Dosunmu and cinematographer Bradford Young use light and composition to make almost every frame (breathtaking profiles; close-ups on faces and feet; slo-mo moped rides down city streets) stunning. The cumulative effect of their visual handiwork brings an unexpected impact when tragedy finally strikes."[5]
