To see at the cinema… Marmail: Why is this film a great first in France?

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Thomas, a 15-year-old from Reunion, only wants to win a breakdancing competition and travel to the mainland. But when her mother brutally puts her and her sister Audrey on the street, their world comes crashing down. Placed with their unknown father and left to fend for themselves, they must overcome abandonment and rebuild themselves.

Reunion Island often hosts the filming of French films. But Marmaille represents a great first: it is the first film shot in Reunion, 100% Reunion, speaks Reunion Creole, and enjoys a theatrical release in mainland France.

“If Reunion has become a famous filming location for several years, hosting the biggest productions, an open-air film studio and a place to grow inspiring stories, this is the first time that a director from the country will try to conquer the cinemas. metropolis“- explains the director Grigory Lucille in his idea.

and added: “I do this with the honor of putting young people from my street in leading roles, respecting our music inherited from the days of slavery, Maloya. I do this with the firm belief that after this movie you will want to dance your life away and get together.”

A setting that matches the strong point of the film

Marmaille enjoys a unique and special filming environment. But it should be noted that its director never tried to shoot the cliché of this place. Quite the opposite. This setting is in any case completely consistent with the theme of the film, as well as Gregory Lucille in a very relevant way in the press kit.

“I believe that this island is still in its adolescence. It has only been inhabited for 400 years and is still being explored. So I saw a parallel there with my characters who also have to fight for their future. Reunion Island is remarkable for its landscape, its cultural mix – many ethnic groups and religions mix there – and the solidarity that reigns there. I am madly in love with my island, which is also the central character of my film. Moreover, his wild, fiery character should match the temperament of Thomas, who also embodies, in this respect, the island where I live..”

A story based on little-known true facts

Marmail’s strength lies mainly in his subject matter, which is rarely considered in cinema and with a rather radical bias. Gregory Lucille explains where the idea to solve this issue came from: “UOne day, when I was helping a young man in need, I found myself at the social assistance department For children in Saint-Leu, Reunion. There I met a social worker who told me this: “Mothers leaving their children is a trivial situation for us.”

Mothers leaving their children is a common situation for us.

This sentence really shocked me and made me want to know more. I went to magistrates, court police officers, social workers and they all told me the same thing as this woman. For me, who was lucky enough to grow up in a loving family, this is incredible. this ” A banal situation » jumped out the day a child protective services worker took me into a large secure room: there I found hundreds of suspended files about these abandoned children. This staggering number of files made me angry. That’s why I decided to start from this topic by taking a teenager’s point of view.”

The radical nature of the subject stems from the fact that we do not know why the mother chose to be absent. “The situation is all the more violent because the father of these two children abandoned them as well.“

and added: “This resonates with many situations I have encountered in my writing research. Despite the violence of the situation, my desire was to look positively at the story of family reconciliation, not around the mother, who fails, but around the father, who appears by force of circumstances to be sublimated thanks to this situation.“

Marmaille hits theaters this Wednesday, December 4, 2024.