Champion on TF1: How much is this TV movie about illiteracy with Kenji Giraki worth?

What are you doing?

At 24 years old, Zach looks like a young man who feels good about himself. His secret is well kept. A talented carpenter, he built treehouses with his father. But his passion is boxing, which he teaches voluntarily.

Zack plans to move in with Marjorie when his father takes a bad fall and slips into a coma. Now he has to take care of the small family business alone. The flaws he thought he had overcome resurface, and as newcomer Ines enters his life, his secret is in danger of being revealed at any moment: Zack is illiterate.

Monday 5th September at 9.10pm on TF1 and available now on Salto.

who is he with

For the first time, viewers find Kenji Giraki on TF1 not in a variety show, but in a TV movie, in which he lends his qualities to the character of Zack. Discovered on The Voice in 2014, the singer will join Champion in a comedy about a topic close to his heart: illiteracy.

Alongside her you will find famous actors from the small screen and in particular from the first page, such as the flagship actress of the series Here It All Begins, Aurelie Ponce, who plays Marjorie, Zach’s girlfriend. Also Jean-Michel Tinnevel (Alice Nevers, Simon Coleman), who plays Freddy, the owner of a boxing club in which a young man gives lessons to women and children.

Two more young actors appearing on the channel are being casted. This is Hananeh El Youssef, seen in the third season of Red Bracelets and currently in the Netflix mini-series Endless Night, playing Ines, the sweet and brilliant young woman who Zach falls in love with. As for his little brother, he is played by Keanu Peyran, known for his role as Pablo (Adrián’s son) in the TV series Clem.

Finally, to interpret Zack’s parents, director Mona Achache (Balthazar, HPI, Les Femmes et l’assassin) turned to François Creton (Engrenages, Les Héroiques) and Lubna Azabal (Braqueurs, Rebel).

is it worth watching

With its latest singles, TF1 is giving celebrities a chance to get into comedy. After Theo Kurin and Alessandra Sublette in Handigang, this time the channel offers to discover the singer Kenji Giraki in a new territory. If the announcement of his participation in this TV movie may have caused some concern, the artist firmly demonstrates his legitimacy in the role of Zack.

Indeed, Kenji Jirak has been preparing for a long time and it really shows. Boxing lessons, bulking up or changing his hair, the young man stops at nothing to embody the character with utmost accuracy. Apart from the physical training, the actor is really surprised from the first minutes of the TV movie and we even forget that this is his first role. A fate that not everyone can boast of.

In Champion, the singer focuses on the topic of illiteracy, which is particularly close to him. Moreover, he is not afraid to talk about the difficulties that he himself encountered a few years ago, especially in the field of reading. In the end, the role is almost tailor-made for him, but don’t get me wrong, Zack is not a romanticized version of his translator.

With this TV movie, we literally delve into the life of a young man who suffers in silence from his illiteracy. Every detail is carefully thought out as Zach tries to read, whether it’s road signs or messages on his phone, the letters are reflected on the screen. If a character can’t read, it’s also about the audience being in total immersion.

If Zack had been able to hide his illiteracy from his parents and relatives until now, his father’s work accident suddenly pushed him out of his comfort zone. Left alone to run the family business, he is faced with a constant stream of messages and letters from clients that he is unable to answer.

On the one hand, his family business is in a critical state, on the other hand, his personal life is turned upside down by the disturbing situation of his father and his oppressive girlfriend, which will annoy more than one. The accumulation of all these difficulties and responsibilities increases the pressure until the inevitable explosion of the character.

Throughout the television movie, the director Mona Achache brilliantly develops an exciting and exciting story about a social phenomenon that, unfortunately, has passed into silence, although it did not fall into pathos. Indeed, despite his painful ordeal, Zac sees the light thanks to Ines, a beautiful young woman who is raising her little brother Alexander practically on her own.

If the champion is focused on illiteracy, he also approaches some subtle issues, such as cancer or even the unspeakable in the family sphere. Finally, the film delivers a powerful message of hope to people living with disability and illness: we are all champions.

Reminder: more than 7% of the adult population aged 18 to 65 who received an education in France are illiterate. That’s 2.5 million people in mainland France in 2018 According to the National Agency for Combating Illiteracy. These figures show the need to broadcast a TV movie on this topic as a bonus on one of Europe’s most watched channels.