NEW FRENCH SHORTS FOUED MANSOUR: AHMED'S SONG/LE CHANT D'AHMED (2019) MOHAMED SADI IN LE CHANT D'AHMEDA relationship; a gemThis evocative half-hour film captures a dry, North African sensibility but is sweet. Ahmed (Mohamed Sadi) is an old dude who's worked nearly 30 years as a public baths attendant. His wife and four children have long ago returned to the
bled and they're grown up and grown old apart, through he's always sent clothes and support, never got the shoe size wrong. When you see how fussy Ahmed is, how smartly he knots his scarf, you know he wouldn't miss a detail. But here is, is alone. Then Mike (Bilel Chegrani) arrives as a juvenile offender assigned this temporary job while he's on probation.
The sly, self-confident (and handsome) youth breaks rules, but the disapproving Ahmed is secretly charmed, even while he's critical of Ahmed's rap composition, disapproves of his attraction to a pretty Roma girl, and is stung when Mike starts singing the famous '80's song of the group Djurdjura, "Tu es Ahmed, le roi du balai," "You're Ahmed the king of the broom." Both the actors are memorable, young Chegrani, a professional who has appeared in the crime series "Engrenages" ("Spiral"), and
Sadi, a retried non-actor and denizen of the Maghrebi-centric Goutte d'Or in the 18th arrondissement of Paris.
Though the situation is harsher and more minimal the relationship reminded me of François Dupeyron's
Monsieur Ibrahim with Omar Sharif and Pierre Boulanger. Writer-director Foued Mansour works subtly with looks and gestures and clipped dialogue to develop milieu and character as the closed old man is opened up just enough. A graceful, understated film of neat structure and a sure sense of rhythm down to the last jaunty gesture. Not surprisingly a César nominee for the year's Best French Short Film award. It was in a number of short film festivals including Clermont-Ferrand and also at Palm Springs.
BILEL CHEGRANI IN LE CHANT D'AHMED