In Wesh wesh, what are you celebrating ? Released in 2002, Rabah Ameur-Zaïmeche imposes its mark on French cinema. A Templewood gang, his seventh film, fits into the social vein of his filmography. This is crossed by the figure of the hero fighting alone against everyone for a certain idea of justice. In this case, it is Mr. Pons who embodies the grain of sand that grabs the gears. The first scene is characteristic of the director's naturalistic journey, born in 1966 in Algeria. An ambulance parked at the foot of a building, a brief conversation between the paramedics and a man, a fixed shot of the character smoking a cigarette while, in the background, a body is transported. This is the deceased mother of Mr. Pons, a former sniper in the French army.
The destructive power of money
The octogenarian was a pillar of the Bois-du-temple neighborhood, in Clichy-sous-Bois, we learned about it from a group that met Mr. her my mother was making them pancakes. The camera then lets the grieving man follow the Bois-du-temple gang as they prepare to steal the van of a wealthy Saudi prince. An intrigue born from a true story, told by Rabah Ameur-Zaïmeche: “Originally, it was news that occurred in 2014, during which a heavily armed gang from Seine-Saint-Denis was attacked, on a ramp on the A1 highway near Porte de La Chapelle, a black van that transported the personal belongings of an Arab prince, one of the richest men in the world. »
The group of ten friends, who grew up in the neighborhood, execute the perfect plan, but have little time to imagine how to spend their money – for themselves and others – when they are overtaken by the other, destructive power of money. Once again, current events inspired the director through the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in 2018: “I was shocked both by the brutality of the act and by the impunity of such bloodthirsty violence, committed by high-ranking dignitaries so powerful that they believe above laws and human justice are. »
Young people in the neighborhoods understand that our economic and political systems are governed by an oligarchic caste that only offers reports of predation
The recklessness of the thieves, their idealism, their camaraderie find their counterpoint in the person of Jim, soberly played by Slimane Dazi, who discreetly leads the investigation of the Saudi prince. We think about red circle, by Jean-Pierre Melville, in the way the threads got tangled until the resulting knot. I also discovered the economic climate in the effects of his films, which Rabah Ameur-Zaïmeche cites as a reference: “He is one of my favorite directors, even though the representation he gives of his characters, in the Samurai for example, excluding the question of their social status. Mine look completely like children from working-class neighborhoods, totally incorporated into class relations. »
© Les Alchimistes Distribution
Fight to do Classes
To embody this class struggle, A Templewood gang portrays Arabs who rob an Arab: “In France, as elsewhere, it is better to be a rich Arab, or even very rich, than an Arab from working-class neighborhoods... Racism is first and foremost a weapon directed against poor, to better divide them. Young people from minority neighborhoods are aware of this and know very well that they are part of fixed relationships where they are dominated. »
Violence is then a resource to change an immutable situation: “Some prefer to dive into delinquent spirals because they carry within themselves the seeds of revolt and social protest, even if they are far from the ideologies that have defended the class struggle and in which the young people from working-class circles have already met. They understood that our economic and political systems are governed by an oligarchic caste that only offers predatory relationships. »
Sometimes it happens that an angel breaks a gear in the relations of domination where money is king, and frees up a poetic space in this gear.
The battle between the iron pot and the clay pot is very unequal and, to restore the balance, the figure of the vigilante avenger appears, reminiscent of Clint Eastwood's westerns. An enigmatic character appears out of nowhere and shakes the order of things: “Sometimes it happens that an angel breaks a gear in the relations of domination where money is king, and frees up a poetic space in the closed gear of determinisms and destinies. »
Languidly filmed social thriller filled with edgy action scenes, A Templewood gang it is a cross between the cinema of Jean-Pierre Melville and that of Ken Loach. Rabah Ameur-Zaïmeche films human and urban faces – the city's bars – with the same attention to detail to show us the brilliance and horror that are hidden.
© Les Alchimistes Distribution
A Templewood gang, by Rabah Ameur-Zaïmeche, released in French cinemas on 6 September 2023
