Banlieue Blues
LES MISÉRABLES Training Day meets La Haine in Ladj Ly’s incendiary debut.
Don’t be confused by that title: the feature debut of French filmmaker Ladj Ly is neither an adaptation of the long-running musical nor Victor Hugo’s 1862 novel. But it is inextricably linked to the latter. “For me, Les Misérables is not the musical,” says Ly, who’s speaking to Teasers at the Cannes Film Festival, where his film will go on to win the Jury Prize. “First, it’s a Victor Hugo novel. But moreover, it is a story that was written in Montfermeil. The important thing for me is that poverty and misery is still very much in this neighbourhood, a century after.”
A snapshot of contemporary life in the impoverished East Paris suburb, the film follows Stéphane Ruiz (Damien Bonnard), a new transfer to Montfermeil’s Anti-Crime Brigade. Shown the ropes by two colleagues willing to step over the line to keep the peace, Stéphane’s first week goes from bad to apocalyptic after a moment of criminal malpractice is caught on camera, prompting a race to acquire the compromising footage. Remarkably, this event was drawn from Ly’s own life.
“After filming this police blunder, I knew that I was in danger,” Ly recalls. “The head of the police had me in his office, and threatened me if I showed the video to anyone. Straight after I went to Paris and met with the people
at our [film] collective, Kourtrajmé. It was actually Costa-Gavras who advised me to get in touch with an independent media organisation working with Le Monde. Through them the video was watched a lot.”
Ly was also witness to the 2005 Paris riots – chronicled in his documentary 365 Days In Clichy-Montfermeil – with another late-film incident drawn from the director’s first-hand experiences. “The last scenes in this film really happened. That was my staircase.
It was a very, very tense situation,” nods Ly. Comparisons to Matthieu Kassovitz’s equally furious La Haine are common, but not without good cause. “La Haine was the inspiration for us to set up Kourtrajmé,” explains Ly, who was “troubled” by the fact both films address the same, ongoing concerns. “It’s actually proof that nothing has changed. There has been a lot of violent actions from the police forces and it’s still a problem.”
A celebrated documentary filmmaker, Ly first made Les Misérables as a short in 2017, starring several of the same cast, “in order to prove I could do fiction.” Like the short, the full-fat Les Misérables is a multiple award-winner, and was France’s nominee at this year’s Oscars. But making the film was never about recognition for Ly, it was about getting the message out. “This film is hopefully going to enable all the countries of the world to know the issues of the French suburbs better.” JF
ETA | 24 APRIL / LES MISÉRABLES OPENS NEXT MONTH.