LES MISERABLES
| 2019 – 103′ – Drama
Written by Ladj Ly, Alexis Manenti.
Directed by Ladj Ly.
Starring Damien Bonnard, Alexis Manenti, Djebril Zonga, Issa Perica, Al-Hassan Ly, Steve Tientcheu, Jeanne Balibar
Official Selection Cannes International Film Festival (Winner Jury’s Prize). Toronto International Film Festival.
US Premiere at TAFFF/COLCOA French Film Festival 2019 (winner Best First Feature Award). France’s Oscar Submission for 2020 Best International Feature Film Award.
In French with English subtitles.
An Amazon Prime release.|
Victor Hugo’s magnum opus is both lionized and shaken up in Ladj Ly’s sprawling fresco of his native Montfermeil — a collection of housing projects crawling with sleazy cops, small-time hoods, the Muslim Brotherhood, and a ragtag group of kids left to fend for themselves… all jockeying for turf and struggling to forestall the inevitable. Majestic, stirring, gripping and compassionate, with a musical score that is, at once, moving and thrilling, the film follows an upright cop on his first day on the job, as he learns the ropes and struggles to hold onto his principles. It opens with a rousing rendition of La Marseillaise and a joyous eruption of fraternité, and concludes with a resounding eleventh-hour alarm and powerful plea to diffuse the tinderbox and somehow resolve all this (justified) anger and violence. Because the revolution is ever at hand!