美国国家公共电台 NPR France's New 'Les Misérables' Film Is Not The 'Les Mis' Musi（在线收听）

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

The new film "Les Miserables" is not another adaptation of the Victor Hugo novel. It's definitely not a musical by BJ Leiderman, who writes our theme music. It is set in the same Paris suburb that inspired part of the 19th century classic, and it is about the neighborhood's impoverished residents. But this film is a modern-day cop thriller. It's France's entry to the Oscars. Rebecca Rosman reports from Paris.

REBECCA ROSMAN, BYLINE: As "Les Miserables" opens, the residents of Paris are anything but miserable.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "LES MISERABLES")

UNIDENTIFIED ACTORS: (As characters, cheering).

ROSMAN: France has just won the 2018 World Cup, and an ecstatic group of black teenagers is making its way into central Paris.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "LES MISERABLES")

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As character) Yay.

ROSMAN: The streets are flooded with people from all backgrounds draped in the colors of the French flag.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "LES MISERABLES")

UNIDENTIFIED ACTORS: (As characters, speaking French).

ROSMAN: This is the France the country's politicians love to idealize, a country where people of all classes, colors, and religions can feel united under a common French fierte. But then the scene shifts to the dreary working-class suburb of Montfermeil, where these boys spend most of their days.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "LES MISERABLES")

ROSMAN: It's a place plagued by police violence, ethnic clashes, and little opportunity. Lined with high-rise housing projects, factories and dingy kebab shops, it looks nothing like the Paris audiences are used to seeing on screen. And that's exactly why Director Ladj Ly wanted to make this film, his first major feature.

LADJ LY: (Through interpreter) The film is about the daily misery shared by everyone in Montfermeil.

ROSMAN: Everyone from the inhabitants of the graffitied high rises to the cops who patrol them. The story follows a day in the life of Montfermeil's anti-street crime unit.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "LES MISERABLES")

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #2: (As character, speaking French).

ROSMAN: After trying to arrest one teen, the unit is confronted by the same kids we saw celebrating France's World Cup victory. And they're not smiling. They're throwing stones.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "LES MISERABLES")

ROSMAN: Many of these scenes are taken directly from the pages of director Ladj Ly's own life.

LY: (Through interpreter) There used to be this big tower just over there when I arrived here in the 1980s, and that's where I lived.

ROSMAN: Standing on the balcony of his apartment in Montfermeil, Ly describes the neighborhood where he was raised by immigrant parents from Mali and where he still lives today.

LY: (Through interpreter) Forty years later, they got rid of the tower, and here I am still living here today.

ROSMAN: Ly says that since the November release of "Les Miserables" in France, the country is finally being confronted with a problem people have long been aware of but refuse to address head on, the problems immigrants pushed to the city's suburbs face as they struggle to make better lives for themselves in a new country.

LY: (Through interpreter) That's why the film has had such an impact. People may not want to see certain part of this film, but I'm going to make you see what real life looks like in this neighborhood. I've lived through this.

ROSMAN: So have many of the first-time actors in the film. That's why Ly and several other established artists started a film school in the nearby suburb of Clichy-sur-Bois in 2018.

LY: (Through interpreter) Getting access to film schools can be expensive and complicated. So we decided to give up on other schools and open our own.

ROSMAN: Students come from all over France to study here under some of the country's top filmmakers, all free of charge.

YASSINE LASSAR: (Speaking French).

ROSMAN: Yassine Lassar is a 29-year-old math teacher who lives in the neighborhood.

LASSAR: For the first time I told myself maybe there's a way to tell or own stories, stories of people who are not heard most of the time.

ROSMAN: For Mbathio Beye, originally from Senegal, Ly is providing students like herself with opportunities they'd never thought they'd have.

MBATHIO BEYE: It's just, like, he went to the window, you know? When the door is not open, you have to go to the window, and this is what he did. And now the door is open. You can go get in. You can go make it.

ROSMAN: But opening windows has also made Ly a target of backlash. Last month, two right-wing newspapers reported Ly was once convicted for taking part in a murder. That was proven to be fake news. But another paper later verified that he was convicted of complicity in an attempted kidnapping, for which he served a two-year sentence. Ly says that like the teen actors in his film, he's a product of his surroundings, and he wants to help them rise above their misere the way he has. He says the accusations are part of an attempt from the far-right to crush him ever since it was announced "Les Miserables" would be representing France at the Oscars.

LY: (Through interpreter) Every time we lift our head above water, there is always these same groups that try and squash us. But we are stronger than that.

ROSMAN: Ladj Ly said he's proud to be representing France at the Oscars, and he'll do all he can to help his country win.

For NPR News, I'm Rebecca Rosman in Paris.

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