Another View 2004 / L' Esquive / France 2003
Like many other Arab immigrants, 15-year-old Krimo lives in the suburbs of Paris and his life seems to be going nowhere. But thanks to schoolmate Lydia, he encounters the world of theatre and experiences first love along the way. But life in the Parisian suburbs is hard, and ethnic rancour, erupting on all sides, is the order of the day. . . .
Fifteen-year-old Abdelkrim, called Krimo, lives in the suburbs of Paris, in a district inhabited mainly by poor Arab immigrants. His father is in jail, his mother struggles with the burden of everyday cares, and the kid, like his neighbourhood peers, just hangs out feeling bored. Then he gets to know the attractive Lydia, and she takes him to auditions for a Marivaux play to be put on by a group of drama enthusiasts from school. A hitherto unknown world of art and mellifluous literary French opens up before Krimo, and it seems that he’ll get the part of Harlequin is he can learn his lines. The adolescent boy falls in love with Lydia and his theatre experience helps him find the words to declare himself. But even in the suburbs of Paris two very different worlds can collide...
117 min / Color, 35 mm
Director Abdellatif Kechiche
/ Screenplay Abdellatif Kechiche
/ Dir. of Photography Lubomir Bakchev
/ Music Nicolas Washkowski
/ Editor Ghalya Lacroix
/ Producer Jacques Ouaniche
/ Production Lola films / Noé productions
/ Cast Osman Elkharraz, Sara Forestier, Sabrina Ouazani, Nanou Benahmou, Hafet Ben-Ahmed, Aurélie Ganito, Carole Franck, Hajar Hamlili, Rachid Hami, Meriem Serbah, Hanane Mazouz, Sylvain Phan
/ Contact Playtime, Noé Productions
Abdellatif Kechiche (b. 1960) is a screenwriter and director who started out as an actor. He debuted in film in 1984 with Un thé a la menthe, and has also been seen in, among others, Mutisme, Les innocents, Un vampire au paradis, Bezness, Le secret de policinelle, Marteau rouge and La boite magique. He came out as a director with La faute à Voltaire (2001); L’Esquive is his second feature. ‘People often talk to me about an ethnographic film, yet my approach is totally different,’ the director said. ‘I don’t aspire to transcribing blocks of raw reality. Instead, along with my actors and crew, I reconstruct a world that is ours. It is fictitious but crossed by flashes of emotion that bring it to life. L’Esquive was a project I had put forward a long time before La faute à Voltaire, in 1993-94. At the time, no television channels or producers believed in it. There has been such a stigmatizing of poor areas in the suburbs that it’s become almost revolutionary to place any action there, unless it’s related to gang rapes, drugs, girls in veils or forced marriages. I wanted to talk about love and theatre for a change.’
Playtime
5 rue Nicolas Flamel, 75004, Paris
France
Phone: +33 153 103 399
E-mail: [email protected]
Noé Productions
94, rue Lauriston, 75116, Paris
France
Phone: +33 1 450 525 32
Fax: +33 1 450 524 45
E-mail: [email protected]
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