Les Miserables: French Oscar-nom is not Victor Hugo's story, but a volatile tale of young immigrant gangs on the constant brink of breaking the peace

By Karen Gordon

Rating: B-plus 

 Les Miserables is an intense ride, a gripping action-filled police procedural that leaves you with grappling with social issues and youth when the movie ends.

The film, which is nominated for a International Oscar (on behalf of France), and which tied for the Jury prize at least year’s Cannes film festival, is set in the Montfermeil area of Paris, where director and co-writer  Ladj Ly grew up, and where Victor Hugo wrote the namesake novel Les Miserables.  

For his part, Ly claims the story, though fictional, is thoroughly inspired by real events he experienced while growing up in Montermiel.

The gang’s all here, living in a shaky state of peace in the French Oscar nominee Les Miserables

The area is now a series of apartment buildings, mostly home to working class North African immigrants and their families. As portrayed, it has a series of factions or gangs that have ad hoc authority over small territories.  They’re known by names like The Gypsies and The Muslim Brotherhood. And then there’s a man called The Mayor whose posse deals drugs. The youth are largely perpetrators of petty crimes, and are known to the police.

There’s tension, but everyone minds their business as much as possible. The memory of riots in 2005 are still fresh enough so that each group keeps to their own territory, warily keeping an eye out for intrusions or insults that might have to be dealt with. There’s testosterone here, alpha males with hard stares, holding the line.  As one character points out when tensions rise, no one suffered more than the area residents as a result of the riots. That fearful reality is part of what keeps things in balance.  

Another mitigating factor here are the police who patrol the area in an unmarked car. Then anti-crime squad is led by the bullying Chris, played by Alexis Manenti, (who also co-wrote the screenplay, with Ly and Giordano Gederlini) and his long-time partner Gwada (Djibril Zonga).  They’re breaking in a third, Stephane Ruiz (Damien Bonnard), who has voluntarily joined them on these tough streets. 
The two veterans drive their new partner around the neighbourhood, giving him a lay of the land, and a sense of the relationships they’ve have struck with the various factions. Ruiz isn’t impressed with their tendency to ignore rules.   

But he has little time to contemplate.  One of the Bugs has stolen a lion cub from the Gypsies circus. That sets off a series of confrontations that escalate in unpredictable ways.

Les Miserables is the feature film debut of Ly, who stands by its verisimilitude.

But Les Miserables isn’t as simple as a story about the immigrant community and how it copes with a feeling of alienation.  As the film goes on, and we see the way various groups, posses and factions operate. it’s clear that none of them, not even the police officers, have much agency over the way things are.  To a certain extent they’re all trapped, living out the results of decisions made at higher political and social levels.  

It’s a big cast with lots of moving parts.  And Ly has pulled off a terrific balancing act here. He gives us enough of a sense of each of the characters, that we get what’s at stake for them.

In this small slice of a society, there’s much chest beating and and potential danger, if anyone wants to go for it. The question is will they cross that line? As the action unfolds, each of the men in charge of their respective faction flexes muscles and is taken down a peg.  They may not all be good guys, but they’re also not bad guys.  

The real undercurrent here - and what Ly ad his co-writers want us to look at - is what’s happening to the kids. Ly takes us to the brink of this reality-based world, where past and present are about to meet the future. And he leaves us there to contemplate.   

Les Miserables. Written by Ladj Ly, Giordano Gederlini and Alexis Manenti.. Directed by Ladj Ly. Starring Alexis Manenti, Djibril Zonga and Damien Bonnard. Opens Friday January 17 at the TIFF Bell Lightbox.