| Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
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Osman Elkharraz | ... |
Krimo
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| Sara Forestier | ... |
Lydia
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| Sabrina Ouazani | ... |
Frida
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Nanou Benhamou | ... |
Nanou
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Hafet Ben-Ahmed | ... |
Fathi
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Aurélie Ganito | ... |
Magalie
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Carole Franck | ... |
French Professor
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Hajar Hamlili | ... |
Zina
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Rachid Hami | ... |
Rachid
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Meriem Serbah | ... |
Krimo's Mother
(as Meryem Serbah)
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Hanane Mazouz | ... |
Hanane
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Sylvain Phan | ... |
Slam
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| Olivier Loustau | ... |
Policier
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Rosalie Symon | ... |
Policier
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Patrick Kodjo Topou | ... |
Policier
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In the slums of Paris, a group of students - primarily North African and Southeast Asian immigrants - are staging a class production of the Marivaux play "Le Jeu de l'Amour et du Hasard," about the inevitability of class distinctions. Lead actress Lydia (Sara Forestier) takes to the material, encouraging and bullying the other students to take the production seriously. Meanwhile, her friend Krimo (Osman Elkharraz) plays her love interest on stage and harbors real affection as well.
This French film is a quite disheartening look at life in the public housing projects outside Paris. In a crumbling neighborhood with a majority of immigrants from Northern Africa, a high school tries to produce a play by Pierre Marivaux (1688-1763). The heart of the film is the budding romance between the vivacious blonde Lydia (one of the few "native" French living in the neighborhood) and the shy and painfully inarticulate Krimo, who is ridiculized by his thuggish friends for taking a part in the play. All the kids speak in an unintelligible slang, which makes a contrast with the classical French of Marivaux. I wrote it was disheartening (despite not being a drama) because it shows that the marginalized inhabitants of the projects have an almost nil chance of breaking into the mainstream of French society. Thoughtful and worth seeing.