40 | Sight&Sound | May 2020LADJ LY LES MISERABLESare everybody – the inhabitants, the police... all the
people in this universe.
EL: How did you strike a balance between denouncing this
reality and opening up a conversation?
LL: It’s a politically engaged film. I have something
to say: I’m not just making a film to make a film, but
because I want to move the lines. The idea behind
[the film’s] open ending is that it might make people
think and start a debate. And that is what is happening.
Whether we like it or not, the film is a tool. It makes
people talk, it changes things. Lots of things are being
reconsidered. The film was seen by more than two
million viewers in France. The government said they
wanted to improve the living conditions in the banli-
eue after seeing the film. These are only words for now,
but still, things are happening.
EL: It’s interesting that the film gives us the point of view of
a policeman coming from the provinces – a total outsider.
LL: Oftentimes, the policemen who arrive in these neigh-
bourhoods are just out of school or don’t have a lot of ex-
perience, and most of them come from the provinces. I
thought it would be interesting to tell this story from the
perspective of this man who will discover this world at
the same time as the viewer. Unfortunately, most people
who don’t live in the banlieue only know it through the
media and through politics – most of them have never
been. It was important to try to make people understandwhat the banlieue is really like, so that they wouldn’t im-
mediately jump to clichés or fantasies.
EL: You filmed the real-life protests in the banlieue in 2005,
which fed into your short documentary 365 Days in Clichy-
Montfermeil [2007]. What differing impacts do you think
fiction films and documentaries have?
LL: I don’t really separate the two. If I make a film, it’s
because I have something to say. A few years ago, I
found myself filming a moment of police brutality – I
saw first-hand all the consequences of that. I thought it
would be interesting to bring it to the realm of fiction.
Les Misérables is fiction, but its impact remains as strong.
Whether it’s documentary or fiction, the message goes
through, and that’s what’s important.
EL: You also made a documentary called 365 days in Mali
[2014] and you’ve said you want to make films in Africa. Is
this still something you are pursuing?
LL: Yes, it’s a desire I’ve had for a long time. We’re setting
up a Kourtrajmé film school in Senegal in September. We
want to have a presence in Dakar, to form this generation
of filmmakers and develop projects there.
EL: And you’ve opened a film school called Kourtrajmé in
Montfermeil too.
LL: Yes. If we want French cinema to change and to
become more diverse, we need to take the situation into
our own hands. If we don’t do it, I don’t know who will.
So I decided with this school to give a chance to diversity- diversity in cultures, diversity in social backgrounds...
We give everyone a chance. It is free, open to all, and
applicants do not need to have a diploma. This will be
the school’s second year and everything is going well.
When you see all this energy, all these young people
with lots of ideas being super-productive, it’s wonderful.
Things will be happening in the next few years, that’s
for sure. It’s not just me and my career. I evolved with
Kourtrajmé and we always did everything together.
That is what I’m trying to put in place today. I want all
the students to benefit from the network I have and the
one I’m creating. All our students are busy, none of them
are left behind.
‘ The film does
not take
sides. It was
important for
us to say that
the ‘misérables’
are everybody –
the inhabitants,
the police... all
the people in
this universe’
LIONS AND LAMBS
Djebril Zonga as Gwada
(above), a cop forced to
reappraise his position after
an incident involving a violent
colleague and a boy who
steals a lion cub belonging to
a circus run by members of a
Roma family (right)