Cinema film “les indesirables” – resistance in the suburb

How can we live and die in such a place? «Asks the desperate mother of the young Haby (Anta Diaw) when the coffin of the grandmother is worn by the narrow, dilapidated and hardly illuminated staircase of the apartment block. The elevator has been broken for a long time, just like part of the staircase lighting. The men almost can’t get through with the coffin and he threatens to slip away all the time. The camera accompanies the funeral procession on this claustrophobic path for a full five minutes. With this intro, director Ladj Ly in his film “Les Indésirables” literally forces the audience to get involved in the perspective of the Banlieue residents whose history is told.

Building number 5 in the settlement of a French suburban community, a typical social focus, is actually to be cleared and replaced by a new building. The residents, who gave the title, “undesirable” are bought their own apartments for a ridicule price. But the new building, the young Haby finds out, is said to consist almost exclusively of two -room apartments, which is equivalent to displacement the numerous large families in the block. Haby works in the archive of the town hall and organizes a tenant advice with friends.

Soon the young woman becomes the head of a neighborhood movement that defends herself against the expulsion. The allegedly socially acceptable modernization is carried out by the newly elected mayor Pierre (Alexis Manenti), who presents himself as a liberal friend of simple people, but is hard -tough with the soon emerging resistance of young people. After being attacked by young people, he has beating on -call police officers clear an illegal scrap place next to the building, which is actually a kind of workshop of the residents, some of which live on their work there. Next, he has an evening ban for young people between the ages of 15 and 18. In addition, no more than two people are allowed to run next to each other on the street. (With this regulations, the residents of Kreuzberg also urge the residents of Kreuzberg in the 1980s.) Then Haby has the candidate for the mayor’s post and organizes an election campaign from below. Instead of posters, bright murals promote the solidarity change. But when there is a fire in an apartment in which an illegal restaurant is operated, the authoritarian mayor Pierre clears the building immediately before Christmas and thus creates facts. All residents suddenly stand on the street.

For his film “Die Verraenden – Les Misérables” (2019), director Ladj Ly, who even grew up in a Banlieue near Paris, was celebrated by international criticism. In addition to the Cesar Film Award and the critic prize in Cannes, the film about the struggle of young people against police violence was even nominated for an Oscar. “Les Indésirables” cannot really build on this milestone. The film goes under the skin in places and tells how a supposedly social district policy, especially the weakest in society, excludes, according to the motto: social problems are solved by selling poor people whose everyday culture does not fit into the concept. As a result, the film also stages the state racism in a disturbing way that has serious consequences for more and more people in the course of the great neo -fascist background from Washington to Budapest. But the film has its lengths, the escalation towards the end of the story has an effect, many conflicts are torn rather than spent on.

Whereby “Les Indésirables” avoids the common Banlieue clichés of young men in hoodies in front of washing concrete walls that have constantly on hand. The film does not offer a riot porn like Romain Gavras “Athena” (2022), for which Ladj LY wrote the script. After all, “Les Indésirables” comes up with a credible, strong heroine who struggles against the destruction of her living environment as well as against violent machism in her environment.

The Banlieues, which, depending on the socio -political major weather situation, always come into the headlines not only French media, have been experiencing a real boom in their cultural -industrial processing in recent years. In addition to Diaty Diallo’s novel “Two seconds burning air”, which tells a lot of collective grief and the fight against repression and recently into the cinema “Gagarin”, who with means of magical realism stages the longings of young people from the previous cities, “Les Indésirables” also tries to design a narrative beyond common cliché. This works over long distances, but the message that political activism nevertheless means an empowering self -empowerment of the residents despite the low chances remains too much.

“Les Indésirables – The Unwanted”: France 2023. Director and screenplay: Ladj Ly. With: Anta Diaw, Alexis Manenti, Aristote Luyindula. 105 minutes. Start: 6.3.