‘Our Ties’ Review: Roshdi Zemi directs a French family saga brought to life by its charismatic protagonist

‘Our Ties’ Review: Roshdi Zemi directs a French family saga brought to life by its charismatic protagonist

French-Moroccan actor Roshdi Zem has built an impressive filmography over the past three decades, starring in crime thrillers. 36 s the little lieutenanta historical epic the glory days s outlawand a César Award-winning performance in Arnaud Desplechin’s 2019 crime drama O poor man!

In addition to his acting career, Zem has also created intriguing work as a director, dealing with cases of racism in turn-of-the-century France.chocolate) and in the 1990s (omar killed me), explores the sharp world of weightlifting (bodybuilder) and providing dirty film noir (person not grateful). Some genres are handled better than others, but what their films have in common is a range of strong performances, including several by the director himself.

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bottom line

A solid, albeit limited, family drama with a memorable protagonist.

place, put: Venice International Film Festival (competition)
in papers: Sami Bouajila, Roshdi Zem, Meriem Serbah, Maiven, Rashid Bouchard, Abel Jaffrey, Nina Zem, Carl Malappa, Anaide Rozam, Lila Fernandez
Director: Roshdi Zemi
screenwriters: Roschdy Zem, Maiwenn

1 hour 26 minutes

This series continues our connections (The Miens), a hot and prickly choral drama that brings together Zem omar killed me stars Sami Bouajilla, one of the best actors working in France today, and reunites her for the first time with actor-director Maven (Mount Roy, cop), with whom he wrote the screenplay.

our connections Undoubtedly Zem’s most Maven movie – it features a great cast playing members of the same rival family, with performances that feel fresh and improvised without being over the top. But it’s Buajila’s turn as Musa, a 50-year-old single father who is abandoned by his second wife and then has a life-changing accident that steals the show. When the actor is on screen, the film comes to life and Buajilla develops a story that works well for the first two acts until it suffers a short, incomplete ending.

We met Musa after his last wife left him, for reasons he never fully understood. That leaves Moussa in trouble, which he hopes to overcome by spending long hours at his desk as CFO of a small French company. When his secretary invites him to a party one night, hoping to seduce him or relax a little (maybe both), he drinks too much and ends up high on what appears to be MDMA. Drunk and drugged, he stumbles and falls on his face, causing a mild coma that leaves him in a strange narcoleptic purgatory.

Not only does Musa’s heart ache, but now it hurts too and it’s up to his family members to fight for him. Caregivers include his children Nesrine (Nina Zemi) and Amir (Karl Malappa), both in their early 20s; her sister Samia (Meriem Serbach), who plays a maternal role; and his brothers Salah (Rachid Boushar, director the glory days s outlaw), who is semi-retired, and Riyad (Zemi), a TV celebrity who hosts his own sports show and rarely has free time.

Although the clan has a lot of quarrels from the start, they manage to bond due to Musa’s accident, but there’s one big problem: part of Musa’s condition, which put him to bed with a giant lump on his forehead, is that his brain now it works in such a way that it no longer speaks through a filter and tells everyone, including the somewhat spoiled children, exactly what it thinks of them.

#nofilter Moussa can be endearingly childish and offensively direct, and Buajilla plays him as a zombie who’s been injected with too much truth serum. He is someone who has suffered a lot of abuse in his life, both from relatives and ex. The scene where he’s forced to finalize his own divorce via Zoom is heartbreaking, and now he’s playing it back. Moussa is wounded, mentally and physically, and his frank honesty is part of a long and difficult process of healing, as the French call it. Bador the period of mourning that follows a great loss.

Some of Zeme’s films feature minority characters, but he’s never focused on a complete North African family like this one, and his depiction of the Moussa clan avoids some of the stereotypes we find in French cinema. The family is fully integrated into Gallic life, to the point where they eat meat and beans for Sunday lunch instead of Moroccan foods like couscous or tagine. Of the five siblings, Moussa and Riyad are particularly successful, working high-pressure administrative jobs that make life quite difficult for them, a point of contention between Riyad and his actress girlfriend Emma (Maven). A difficult relationship that never gets the full treatment it deserves.

Zem lays a lot of groundwork for the conflict that ebbs and flows as Musa makes everyone around her unhappy as she gradually improves. But her sincerity also plays a role in healing whatever problems her children and siblings face in their own lives, and being around her can be exhausting and rewarding.

With almost a dozen characters, somehow more in-depth than others, there’s enough here for a long movie or miniseries, but the director opts for a shortened third act, where everything resolves very easily, as if the effects of Musa’s injury were completely gone. The damage dealt is not permanent and each difficulty leads to something better.

Perhaps Zem was too in love with Musa and her loved ones to make them suffer too much, and there’s no denying the affection with which he treats his cast, including his daughter Nina, memorable in her first big screen appearance, working with the director. of photography Julien Poupard. (The miserable) to create an atmosphere of tenderness in which the drama unfolds. The result isn’t as powerful as expected, but it still packs a punch, especially when Buajilla unleashes the monster onto the screen. Zem hits his characters well, but then resorts to bandages very quickly.

Source: Hollywood Reporter

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