It was nominated for an Oscar as best foreign film, received a special award from the jury in Cannes and was awarded at the César Awards as best film, best new actor, best editing, best audience award. Les Miserables shows us a side of France, that we don't see on a tourist tour...
The story takes place in the commune of Montfermeil, supposedly that area was part of the inspiration for Victor Hugo, in the writing of the famous novel Les Miserables, especially the part where he presents the unpleasant Thénardiers, the ones who run the tavern where Cosette is housed and abused. The Tavern Inn of the novel is located in that area of Paris. It was in this same place that the filmmaker Ladj Ly, director of this film, grew up, knowing the area and all the problems very well.
Stéphane is a policeman from a city in the north of France, who arrives to join the Anti-Crime Brigade of Montfermeil. He is immediately assigned to go with the two policemen on the day shift, Chris and Gwada. They are going to show him a daily day in the multicultural neighborhood. Stéphane is an idealistic cop, who does things the right way. However, the two colleagues, after years of experience in the area, are unorthodox in their ways of doing the job. The mischief of some children, will start a series of actions that will raise tensions between the different gangs that make life in Montfermeil. A chain reaction that will end in collective chaos.
The first images of the film are a collective party. Euphoria. Joy. Soccer, the king of sports as the backdrop for a show that unites the whole of society. In the last images there is no joy, no passion. There is only room for hatred, collective anger that seeks to do justice.
The theft of a baby lion sets in motion the unfortunate events. In a world where everyone hates each other, any excuse is perfect to start a fight. A battle where there are no winners, only losers. The director of the film puts us in the car with the police officers, and we see the action in the front row, the daily life of those officers who are also accomplices of a socio-political system that has failed.
Damien Bonnard is the actor who plays Stéphane, the policeman who comes from Cherbourg, a commune in the Normandy area, where the crime rate is lower, compared to Montfermeil. The most important work in the past was in Christopher Nolan's Dunkirk. Alexis Manenti plays the insufferable policeman Chris. A character we'll hate from the first minute. The typical abusive, nosy, prankster cop. Djibril Zonga is the third policeman, called Gwada and the one who caused the pandora's box to open in Montfermeil.
Les Miserables can be included in the genre of police thriller, but it is also a cinema of social denunciation. Presenting the problems of the poorest neighbourhoods in France. Poverty, crime, clashes between different ethnic groups living in an urban jungle, which seems to be about to explode at any moment. Let's remember that in 2005, in the area of the Seine-Saint-Denis district, strong riots started and spread to other areas. Hundreds of young people unleashed their fury on the police, after the death of two young Muslims.
Many onlookers, depending on the country or social position, are oblivious to this reality. We are busy with our own problems that we do not see what is happening in the next neighborhood. The film denounces a reality within current French society, but which can also be similar to that of other European countries.
Today, the same problems still exist. It's a time bomb that the politicians haven't been able to defuse.
My Rankin: 4/5
Trailer
