Join Flickers’ Rhode Island International Film Festival for free screenings and the last three days of the 5th Annual RWU Tourn??es French Film Festival, hosted on the Roger Williams University, Bristol, RI Campus??
Date: THURSDAY, April 6th at 6:00 p.m.
Location: Global Heritage Hall, Room 01, RWU, Bristol, RI
Qu’Allah b??nisse la France! / May Allah Bless France! Directed by Abd Al Malik, 96 min. France, 2015
May Allah Bless France! is the invigorating first feature by acclaimed French rapper and novelist Abd Al Malik, a coming-of-age story and redemption tale based on the writer-director’s own youth in the beleaguered projects of Strasbourg. The film follows the struggles of R??gis, a budding rapper who relies on petty crime to fund his passion for music. But as his fellow musicians get lured into drug dealing, teenage R??gis finds salvation in the classics of French literature and his conversion to Sufi Islam. While Abd Al Malik’s edifying hymn to education and tolerance is first and foremost a boldly idealistic statement, it is also a profoundly satisfying cinematic experience, shot in high-contrast black and white and full of powerful stylistic devices that break with convention to heighten the impact of everyday violence and injustice. Fluidly adapting his talents as a storyteller to the screen, Abd Al Malik revisits the “banlieue film”-the sub genre of films dealing with restless youth in France’s tough suburbs, launched by Mathieu Kassovitz’s La Haine in 1995-not only to give an insider’s update, but to break with the genre’s suffocating pessimism. In these challenging times for France, and particularly for French Muslims, this intelligent and accessible call for a potential way forward is nothing short of essential viewing.
Date: FRIDAY, April 7th at 6:00 p.m.
Location: Global Heritage Hall, Room 01, RWU, Bristol, RI
Eastern Boys, Directed by Robin Campillo, 128 min. France, 2013
When middle-aged gay professional Daniel spots the undocumented teenager Marek at a train station in Paris and invites him back to his place, he unwittingly makes himself the target of a home invasion by a gang of ruthless Eastern European youth. Despite this most unpromising of starts, Marek and Daniel continue to see each other and their relationship shifts from a sexual arrangement to a surrogate father-son bond. As Daniel learns more about Marek’s life in his native Chechnya, he decides to rescue him from the gang. Though Eastern Boys is only the second feature directed by veteran screenwriter Robin Campillo, it is a surprisingly assured effort, combining empathy and intellectual honesty with a formal rigor that allows the film to develop the breathless momentum of a thriller without sacrificing its complex approach to the hot-button topic of immigration. Through his unusual and thought-provoking way of handling his subject matter, Campillo develops a critical awareness of each of his characters’ positions in society. Whether by recognizing the continued vulnerability of the homosexual, dedicating screen time in a sparsely populated film to a cleaning lady and a hotel receptionist, or precisely describing the circumstances of undocumented youth in France today, Campillo has proved that he is a keen witness to his times, and one whose perspective will be valuable in the years ahead.
SATURDAY MATINEE PROGRAMMING:
Date: SATURDAY, April 8th at 2:00 p.m.
Location: Global Heritage Hall, Room 01, RWU, Bristol, RI
??Francophone Film Festival
New and Classic French Short Films
A memorable collection of award-winning short films celebrating the Francophone experience across the globe. The program is curated from the archives of the Academy Award qualifying, Flickers’ Rhode Island International Film Festival.
??Date: SATURDAY, April 8th at 4:00 p.m.
Location: Global Heritage Hall, Room 01, RWU, Bristol, RI
??Phantom Boy, Directed by Alain Gagnol, Jean-Loup Felicioli, 84 min. France, 2015
Phantom Boy is the second animated feature from Alain Gagnol and Jean-Loup Felicioli, the team behind the Oscar-nominated smash A Cat in Paris. With Phantom Boy, Gagnol and Felicioli bring their charming style of handdrawn animation and whimsical narrative to New York to tell the story of the unlikely alliance between wheelchair-bound police officer Lieutenant Tanguy and Leo, a seriously ill eleven year-old. Thanks to Leo’s ability to send a ghost-like projection of himself flying through the city and some legwork from daredevil reporter Mary Delauney (voiced by Audrey Tautou), the duo are able to save New York from a disfigured maniac without ever leaving their hospital rooms. While Phantom Boy has enough action to appeal to the most hyperactive child, its serious core about childhood illness and its amusing play with the codes of the thriller and superhero genres, not to mention its winks at great local films and series such as Manhattan and The Sopranos, make for a sophisticated viewing experience. With drawings that literally pulse with life and a foreigner’s glee at depicting New York (the dialogue is in French), the film’s greatest assets are a tender blend of poetry and comedy and an idiosyncratic look in which the human touch is always apparent.