By Laurence Houot
After taking an ironic look at her country in Un divan à Tunis , the Franco-Tunisian director this time delves into the daily life of an immigrant family struggling in a France where it is sometimes complicated to feel at home. Reine mère , starring Camélia Jordana, Sofiane Zermani and Damien Bonnard, is released in theaters on Wednesday, March 12.
The film opens with a swim in the Mediterranean sparkling with sunshine. The image, like an idyllic vision of origins, is quickly chased away by the return to reality. Barely back from vacation in France, Amel (Camélia Jordana) and her husband Amor (Sofiane Zermani) learn by mail that they will have to leave their home. For Amel, there is no question of changing neighborhoods. She wants the best for her two daughters, who attend a Catholic school very close to their home. It is there, during a history lesson, that Mouna (Rim Monfort) sees the ghost of Charles Martel (Damien Bonnard) appear for the first time.
While her husband, an electrician, supports the entire family, Amel refuses to work. Without a diploma, she could not hope for better than a job as a cleaning lady, unthinkable for this proud woman who repeats over and over that she grew up in a wealthy family in Tunis. Amor, for his part, struggles to the task. An eternal optimist, he does everything, in vain, to satisfy his capricious wife. As for Doumia, she ends up transforming the ghost of Charles Martel into an imaginary friend, who will help her find her place in a world that rejects her.
In 2020, the Franco-Tunisian director told the story of her country, in full transformation, in Un divan à Tunis , through the story of a psychoanalyst returning home. She explores this question of exile, this time on this side of the Mediterranean, with a second film in the form of a tale that has fun deconstructing the mythological figure of Charles Martel.
Lack of consideration and self-deprecation
How do children feel when they are told at school this story of Charles Martel stopping the Arabs in 732? It is by putting herself in the shoes of a young teenager confronted with this experience that the director pulls the threads of this dramatic comedy in the form of a tale.
With dialogues that hit the mark and this nice idea of staging the ghost of Charles Martel, the director explores the question of exile and immigration from the point of view of a teenager, who receives unfiltered messages that are indirectly addressed to her in class, and in her everyday life. Manele Labini highlights the underlying, constitutive violence of institutions towards those who come from elsewhere. From administrative hassles to ordinary racism. Between clumsiness and malice, the film highlights the lack of consideration of which they are victims in many situations of daily life.
But the film does not just pin down (tenderly, but without concessions) France. It also plays on self-mockery through the portrait of Amel, who ends up becoming annoying because she puts so much bad will into it. Downgraded, this whimsical and proud woman wants to keep her dignity, in all circumstances. If she has to do the housework, it will be without an apron and heels on her feet. Even if she is the laughing stock of her friends, characters with joyful verve, who we are pleased to meet intermittently throughout the film, Amel does not let her life be dictated to her.
One myth against another
Manele Labini enjoys staging two mystifications of the past face to face: on the one hand this largely mythological “fable” always told in history books around the figure of Charles Martel, and on the other the self-mystification of a woman who invents a glorious past to better bear the weight of exile. Through this adventure, Amel, like Charles Martel, will try to escape the stories that imprison them. Because how can we live well in the present when the past imprisons us? This universal question runs through this film full of surprises.
The spirited production is carried by the generosity of the actors. The overflowing and sunny character of Amel seems to have been made for Camélia Jordana. Damien Bonnard, chainmail and cigarette in mouth, plays a ghost of iconoclastic Charles Martel, and forms a touching duo with the young Rim Monfort in the role of Mouna, for whom he represents the imaginary friend she needed to confront the invasive nature of her mother, and a hostile school environment. As for the sympathetic character of Amor, he is carried by the luminous Sofiane Zermani.
Even if the line is sometimes a little heavy-handed, this modern tale sheds new light on the unique feeling of exile, and the battles that one must sometimes wage with oneself, with others, and with institutions, to feel at home.
Damien Bonnard, extremely comfortable in his chainmail, shares the bill for this modern tale with Camelia Jordana, perfect in the role of “Queen Mother” made for her.
Pas De Merde 