Les Miserables. (15.)
Directed by Ladj Ly.
Starring Damien Bonard, Alexis Manenti and Djebril Zonga. In French with subtitles. In cinemas. 104 mins.
This Les Miz is a feature-length Le Bill, in which a cop (Bonard, Dunkirk and Only The Animals) from the sticks who has moved to Paris, spends his first day on the new job touring his new beat - a slum estate in the suburbs - and getting ragged by his new partners. The story starts with the search for a lion cub stolen from a gypsy circus and escalates alarmingly. During the day he gets to deal with various community leaders, sees the numerous faultlines in the society and is shocked by his partners' abuse of power.
It's treading a familiar beat - La Haine from the other side of the riot shield - but does so effectively. It's a compelling drama but with plenty of black humour; fierce, but not polemical. The mark of the film is that everybody can see what they want in it. The police prejudice is so ingrained that even the black officers have taken it on, while viewers of a Le Pen slant will be alarmed at a world where the Muslim Brotherhood is the moral authority and have all their prejudices about the failures of multi-culturalism confirmed.
Directed by Ladj Ly.
Starring Damien Bonard, Alexis Manenti and Djebril Zonga. In French with subtitles. In cinemas. 104 mins.
This Les Miz is a feature-length Le Bill, in which a cop (Bonard, Dunkirk and Only The Animals) from the sticks who has moved to Paris, spends his first day on the new job touring his new beat - a slum estate in the suburbs - and getting ragged by his new partners. The story starts with the search for a lion cub stolen from a gypsy circus and escalates alarmingly. During the day he gets to deal with various community leaders, sees the numerous faultlines in the society and is shocked by his partners' abuse of power.
It's treading a familiar beat - La Haine from the other side of the riot shield - but does so effectively. It's a compelling drama but with plenty of black humour; fierce, but not polemical. The mark of the film is that everybody can see what they want in it. The police prejudice is so ingrained that even the black officers have taken it on, while viewers of a Le Pen slant will be alarmed at a world where the Muslim Brotherhood is the moral authority and have all their prejudices about the failures of multi-culturalism confirmed.
