A new wave of French films tackle social problems and taboos
As “La Haine” did a quarter of a century ago, “Les Misérables” explores life in the banlieues
IT IS THE long hot summer holiday in the year that an ecstatic France has celebrated victory in the football World Cup. Issa, a boy from the brutalist housing estates north of Paris who shared that joy, has been picked up by the police for theft. So far, so banal. But it turns out that Issa stole live chickens—and he took them to feed a lion cub he has snatched from a visiting circus. From this improbable, captivating incident, which reflects Issa’s boredom as much as his naivety, flow a series of devastating events that end childhood innocence and expose the muscular friction of daily life in the French banlieues.
This article appeared in the Culture section of the print edition under the headline “Sounding the alarm”
Culture February 8th 2020
From the February 8th 2020 edition
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