In us: Another look at youth

HelloCine: In the US Is a sequel We Clive PrincessesReleased in 2011 on screens. When did you come up with the idea for this diptych?

Reggie Soder : The idea slowly emerged. I have always kept in touch with the young people who filmed this first film and to some extent it was they who issued the signal for this union. 10 years is a crucial period, the basis of life, from 20 to 30 years.

A lot has happened to them on a family, emotional and professional level. For us, the last 10 years have been politically busy. I wanted to tell a story and see how these young people managed to find a place in this increasingly unequal and violent society.

What surprised you the most about the evolution of the students you see here?

It is undoubtedly their courage, their ability to overcome the many obstacles they have to face without violence. They have a very specific view of the community around them and the place that leaves them, its ability to greet them.

It is interesting to hear them because they have a modern reading of the world around us. Some left Marcel, some built their lives there, but everyone went on a social journey, they are class expelled, but do not forget where they come from.

How did you view the youth of 2011? And 2021 youth?

My appearance is not important, my position is compassionate. The key is for this part of youth to be visible, which we never see, which is never represented. To listen to her and look at her with immense beauty. We shed light on the proportion of minorities who have chosen violence to express their outrage, but we never look to the vast majority of young people who decide to make other choices.

These young people, by their professional and political choices, have decided to be on one level in society, to choose many public services because it is their values. I find this bold and remarkable once again. I am very excited and they give me great hope for the future. They are our future.

At the heart of your film we find Princess Cleves. What is your relationship with this work? What makes it useful to decipher youth?

In the middle of the film, we meet, first of all, the school, the fundamental role of the teachers who accompany these young people, who believe in possible encounters with texts, literature as a means of emancipation. The public school is in danger today as a public hospital, so the film tells us.

I think it is fundamental to show how important this is. And, as Emmanuel recalls in the film, “This is where the public school has to play its part“In order for us to still imagine that the common goal we have set for ourselves is freedom, equality and brotherhood.

In Return to Forbach, You are wondering about the comprehensive impoverishment and frontist drift about the city you are coming from. Marseille In the US It does not seem so far from Forbach …

Marcel, Forbach … Xenophobia and racism cross society. We need works, films that look differently at people who are born, raised and live in these abandoned neighborhoods. They are like us, longing for love, friendship and hope. The vast majority of them want a job, a place in society. My film shows these areas differently and hopes for areas that are constantly disqualified or stigmatized.