OLIVIER GOURMET AND VINCENT ROTTIERS IN THE MARCHERSGrassroots political action in FranceDuring the brief socialist presidency of François Mitterand and therefore a time of hope for leftists, it was known as "La Marche pour l'égalité et contre le racisme" (The March for Equality and Against Racism) and was nicknamed by the media "Marche des Beurs," using a slang word for French-born children of North African Arabs. But it was not just that, since according to this film, key members of the nine original marchers are non-Arabs, especially Claire (Charlotte Le Bon), a self-declared lesbian, Christophe Dubois (Olivier Gourmet), one of the leaders and anchors, and Sylvain (Vincent Rottiers), a young white unemployed man from the poor Minguette suburb outside Lyons, where the march begun in Marseilles got its inspiration. (Names have been changed; these are stand-ins for the originals.) The march took place from 15 October to 3 December 1983. It was the first national demonstration of its kind in France, part of a movement as much needed today as then, and largely forgotten. For director Nabil Ben Yadir clearly this is a labor of love for which he got fine support. The aim equally clearly is to entertain but also to edify and inform.
Two main demands the group formulates: a ten-year residency card and the right to vote for non-citizens. The group's conflicts about its stands are very nicely shown. All the rough edges are there.
The group goes to big cities, but while they are menaced by racists on the road, and one member is brutally disfigured, while another terrible attack takes place against a young Arab on a train, in the first town only one supporter shows up, if an enthusiastic one. But they gather numbers and get on the national news; bravely visit Dreux, a town where the ultra-right National Front had just gained electoral strengh; and when they get to Paris there is a real Paris-style march of well-wishers, 100,00 strong.
Ben Yadir does an excellent job at a task that's not so easy, dramatizing a group event that includes few dramatic events. But there is plenty of specific personal detail. It begins when charismatic young Mohamad (Tewfik Jallab) is gravely injured by a policeman. His friends want to attack the shooter, but the more useful response of non-violent action inspired by Gandhi and Martin Luther King is devised. Kheira (Lubna Azabal of
Paradise Now, Incendies and
Coriolanus, a tough, heavy-smoking French Arab political organizer, joins and becomes the group's voice, often provocative toward individual menbers but clear and eloquent when it's time to give a speech. A fat boy called Farid (M'Barek Belkouk), soft, obsessed by food, and not very willing to go on long walks at first, becomes a stalwart, and keeps a journal that will be one of the event's key records. Also featured is the popular Jamel Debbouze as oddball druggier marcher Hassan and Philippe Nahon as the grumpy but loyal driver of the backup van.
The march's romantic couple turns out to be Sylvain and Monia (Hafsia Herzi of
Secret of the Grain) though in a late scene in the film Monia expresses doubt that their cross-cultural affair can endure. The strength of these two actors shows the depth of the casting here.
The Marchers is involving, sometimes quite moving, even if it's a little long and the mise-en-scène is flat and the overall impression is of a TV movie that's way better done than you'd expect. It would have been nice to have follow up on the movement and the group, including snapshots showing the real people as they were then and are now.
The Marchers/La marche, 12- mins, Nabil Ben Yadir, France/Belgium, 2013, 120m. Released 27 November 2013 in France, the film got decent reviews (Allociné press rating: 3.4). Screened for this review as part of the Unifrance-Film Society of Lincoln Center 6-16 March 2014 series, Rendez-Vous with French Cinema. Schedule: Saturday, March 8, 9:45pm – IFC; Sunday, March 9, 1:30pm – WRT; Friday, March 14, 3:30pm - EBM
In Person: Nabil Ben Yadir
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