La Faute à Voltaire (2000)
Directed by Abdellatif Kechiche

Film Review

Having pursued a successful career as an actor, Tunisian born Abdel Kechiche made a promising debut as a film director with this good humoured yet poignant drama about an illegal immigrant and his socially excluded friends during his stay in France.   Kechiche was honoured with a brace of awards for the film, including the Golden Lion First Film Award at the Venice Film Festival in 2000.  Whilst the film has its faults - some of the plot developments are totally unbelievable and some of the characters are far nearer to sitcom stereotypes than reality - it manages to paint an engaging and generally convincing portrait of those social groups we rarely see in cinema - namely the homeless, illegal immigrants, and people with mental illness.  There are also some pleasing comic touches to offset some of the harsher realism which the film broaches but doesn't seem to have the courage to tackle too seriously.

In the role of Jallel, Sami Bouajila confirms his standing as one of France's leading actors.   Bouajila has both the physique and the personality to be convincing in this kind of role, and manages to bring out in the film its three strongest elements: its poetry, comedy and humanism.   Élodie Bouchez is somewhat less convincing in her role - indeed it is hard to see what exactly attracts Bouajila's character to hers - but her skill in handling a very difficult part becomes apparent as the film progresses.  The film's most touching moments are the scenes with Bouajila and Aure Atika in the first (and far superior) half of the film.

As a social realist drama, La Faute à Voltaire doesn't quite make the grade, but that presumably is not its director's intention.  The film does have any great political ambitions, although it may perhaps change slightly the way we regard illegal immigrants and homeless people.  Rather, it is a touching and humorous portrayal of how people who literally have nothing form relationships and attempt to make a life for themselves in a society which offers them little in the way of support.

Film Synopsis

Jallel is a young Tunisian man who travels to France in the hope of finding a better life for himself.  By passing himself off as a political refugee from Algeria, he is able to get himself a short-stay visa, but he has no intention of returning to his country of origin.  He finds a place to stay at a shelter that caters for the city's homeless and soon strikes up a friendship with others in his predicament.  Jallel finds a home from home in a café run by some Tunsians.  It is here that he meets Nassera, a pretty waitress he cannot help being attracted to.  A second-generation immigrant, Nassera is having a hard time trying to raise her son by herself.

With his visa soon to expire, Jallel implores Nassera to marry him so that he can apply for permanent residency in France.  Reluctantly, the young mother agrees, providing he gives her a large financial inducement.  By selling produce in the Paris underground, the Tunisian finally manages to scrape together enough money, but on the day of the wedding Nassera backs out.  His dreams shattered, Jallel immediately succumbs to a deep depression and soon finds himself in a psychiatric clinic.  Here, he gets to know a young woman named Lucie who is in a more desperate emotional state than he is.  All too late he discovers that she is a raving nymphomaniac.  Not long after he has left the clinic, Jallel runs into Lucie again - and this time she is not prepared to let him get away from her...