Among the films to watch at least once in your life, there is Wretched, by Ladj Ly. And you have to hurry: the film leaves Netflix on September 30, so here’s why you shouldn’t miss it. We could tell you that the dramatic feature film is the first by the filmmaker, a member of the Koutrajmé collective, that it touched the hearts of thousands of spectators including the President of the Republic Emmanuel Macron, or that it won four Césars in 2020, including best film and finally, a nomination for the Oscar for best international film. But this project, above all, must be seen, because it reveals another facet of neighborhood life through the eyes of young people, ambitious, courageous but yet left to their own devices. Wretched also features police officers, sometimes lost and disconcerted by all this violence. There are no good guys or nice guys, in the cops or the suburban clan, just people who do their best.
Wretched : is the film inspired by a true story?
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The film is not strictly speaking inspired by a true story, but from real events. “Everything in it is based on real-life experiences: the jubilation of the World Cup obviously, the arrival of the new cop in the neighborhood, the story of the drone… For five years, with my camera, I filmed I cop-watched everything that was happening in the neighborhood, and especially the cops. As soon as they showed up, I took my camera and filmed them, until the day I caught a real blunder. In the film , the story of the theft of the lion cub triggering the anger of the Gypsies who owned the circus is also lived… I wanted to show all the incredible diversity that makes up the life of the neighborhoods. I still live in these neighborhoods, they are my life and I love filming there. It’s my film set!” the filmmaker confided when the film was released in 2019.
The director Ladj Ly and this actor are childhood friends
When Ladj Ly was auditioning to play Gwada, one of the three cops, “he was looking for a stranger”, as he revealed. He then thought of Djebril Zonga, the husband of Nawell Madani, better known as a model. The two men were old friends from Clichy-Sous-Bois. When he gave her the casting call, it was a real revelation: “I had difficulty finding, black actors are not common in the streets, coming from Omar Sy or Jacky Ido, we can count them on the fingers of one hand. When he found out that I was doing a casting, Djebril told me called. Not only did I not know that he was an actor, but he is also handsome, whereas I was looking for a guy with a bad face to play the BAC cop. I still offered to do some tests without believe it too much, and then, wow!”
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Article written in collaboration with 6Medias
