French movie "Athena" is a film created based on the 2005 French riot. Although it is not a documentary film adapted from the actual events, the Android phone and LCD screen TV appearing in the film are obviously not something that the "poor" community in 2005, but the background of the story is similar to the actual events, so it can be regarded as 2 Creation . The story focuses on a social residence dominated by immigrants in North Africa to reinterpret the deep structural problems that triggered the 2005 French riot. Although
is a second creation, the problem to be presented should be the same as real events, the only difference is the perspective. This film uses a micro perspective to see through the interactive tension and pressure of the rioters' internal actors, which specifically show the complex situations and the choices that individuals actually face under the structural problems of class and race.
The background of this film is introduced
Just like the UK has many Indian and Caribbean immigrants, because France has colonized Algeria , Tunisia , Morocco and other North African countries in the past, so there are many North African immigrants in French society now. Most of these North African immigrants believe in Islam , thus making France one of the countries with the most Islamic believers in Europe.
Similar to the black race problem in the United States, North African immigrants in France are also involved in structural problems such as racial discrimination, gap between the rich and the poor, class antagonism, and more troublesome is the religious problem: Middle East The opposition and conflict between the Islamic world and the Western Christ world intensifies. Especially after 911, Islam is easily labeled as terrorism.
So in a certain way, France's racism problem is more serious than the United States, not only material and economic problems, but also spiritual belief problems. Fortunately, the gun control in France is stricter than that in the United States. In this film, the "mob" must find a way to rush into the police station to grab guns, otherwise it is the gangster who can illegally hold guns. Generally, civilians do not have guns. Unlike the United States, citizens can freely spend money to buy guns in shops at the street corner. In the movie
, the trigger point of the riot is that the immigrant child was abused and died of a person wearing police clothes. After the abuse video was circulated, the relatives and friends group of the child's community was dissatisfied with the police authorities' failure to hand over the list of abuse police, which triggered a riot, and further expanded other immigration communities to respond to the riot.
In reality, the trigger point of the riot was that in 2005, two African-American children were accidentally electrocuted while hiding from the police, triggering the riot in Paris 8+9, and finally expanding to France. The later President Sarkozy was responsible for responding to the riot.
In reality, this riot lasted for several weeks and spread throughout France. It is said to be the largest riot in France since 1968, and it is even called the Civil War (the term civil war also appeared on the last TV screen of this film). In the following years, similar riots broke out in France, but the social public opinion context that discussed these riots was increasingly prominent, and the voice of excluding immigrants became increasingly high, which led to the rise of extreme right xenophobic forces.
Features of this film worth watching
What amazed me the most is the process of filming the action of the four main characters to present the various chaotic situations they are currently facing, and to understand more clearly how their panic, anger, fear, helplessness and irritability arise, and why they choose to take the logic of current actions, specifically presenting the difficulties encountered by immigrants and the pressure faced by the rioters.
There were three actors who were photographed, the brother who died. The eldest brother was a drug dealer. He was angry that the protest affected his business and tried his best to transport the drugs, so he almost cursed for half of the time. The second brother was a soldier. At the beginning, he was very rational and wanted to dissuade this doomed riot to avoid the occurrence of the tragedy. However, after the third brother was shot by the police, he went wild and wanted to avenge his brother's revenge.The third brother is the commander of the riot. He is very angry about the fourth brother being killed. He burst into tears when he looks at the photo of his brother. His role fully demonstrates the sense of jointness of the immigrant family.
The family of the immigration community is another focus of this film. The scene where the protagonist interacts with his mother the most is the mobile phone. At important moments of each character, there will be a call from his mother to worry about his children. The loser at the end of the film should be the protagonist's mother, who died of three sons in one breath.
The fourth actor to be followed was a policeman. When I saw the camera being followed, I felt that something was very tricky, so when I saw the third brother saying that he would take a policeman as a hostage, I knew that he was the hostage.
The footage of this film is interlaced in the follow-up of these four characters. There is basically no panoramic plot preparation, and the film does not show the overall development of riots. So I often see the third brother hear an explosion or a phone call saying that the police have entered which area, and then rush over all the way, constantly dealing with various situations in the process. Or the second child rushed into the community to rescue the hostages and the police can see his adaptability and decisive judgment during the process.
Many plot turning points occur during the intersection and interaction of these protagonists. I think the director is quite powerful and the actors are also very powerful. The camera has been following the camera in front and has not sneaked into the camera at all. This follow-up shot of
allows the audience to more understand the protagonist's action logic, emotions and motivation, but the disadvantage is that they cannot look at the overall situation and grasp the context of the development of things. When the film is seen at the end, the sudden riot ends. In fact, it is not clear what kind of defense happened between the police and the public. Perhaps this disadvantage is that the film deliberately shows the limitations of the actors in the riot.
This film also presents a riot. The people in the immigrant community are not a monolithic. Many people want to live a stable life and do not want to confront the social authorities. Through the perspective of following the filming, we can see the various motivations and action logics of the residents of the community.
The only thing that is not very satisfied with this film is that the end of the film deliberately implies that the dead child was killed by right-wingers who pretend to be police. In fact, this paragraph will be better off. However, perhaps the director does not want to arouse the sensitive nerves of French society, or thinks that the killing of a child is just a detonation point, and whether it is killed by the police is not important at all. What is important is the depression accumulated over the long-term accumulation of the entire social structure. Any small matter may trigger the dissatisfaction and anger of immigrants towards the French establishment. I can't guess the director's real idea as he is dull and ignorant.
ps1: The name of the film is because the residential area where the incident occurred is called Athena. Even if you have never seen Saint Seiya, you should know that Athena is the Goddess of War in the Greek myth, and helps Greece defeat Troy. So, do you know, this film is about a war. As for whether the second person who broke through the blockade and broke into the rescue of people was the Trojan horse, or the immigration community that could not be fully integrated into the mainstream French society was the Trojan horse, I don’t know.
ps2: The content of this film is really good at taking pictures of French riots. The way of protesting in street fighting piled up obstacles is inherited from the French revolutionary tradition. It is very beautiful. It makes people think of pictures of French Revolution and Paris Commune .
