“In Grigny, there are not only drugs and violence, there are beautiful people,” confides Golo.

Released on August 14 in theaters, the film, which features these two suburbanites on a tandem exploring France, attracted 320,000 spectators to theaters. Meet the two protagonists and their city, Grigny.

“It’s crazy. We’re happy, we’re super happy! It’s a great source of pride,” exclaims Golo. Direction the Grande Borne district in Grigny, the poorest city in France, where the two protagonists of the documentary released this summer come from: Golo and RitchieThis film introduces us to two thirty-somethings, famous thanks to their videos on social networks, who live in this city.

These characters – Golo and Ritchie – and their differences – one is Muslim, the other is Catholic and autistic – erased by their friendship, have already attracted more than 320,000 spectators to the cinemas. On average, in France, documentaries are seen by 20,000 people.

“You know, what we like is spontaneity, Golo tells us. We are spontaneous. Ritchie, he is spontaneous, his reactions, they are magical. People love that and they love that when I talk about Richie, I don’t make a difference.” These content creators are followed by nearly 3 million people on social networks. But in the film directed by Martin Fougerol and Ahmed Hamidi, this time, they leave Grigny to explore France in tandem.In fact, we were everywhereexplains Ritchie. It’s a bit different. We saw the cows, the horses, the pig, the chickens. We saw a lot of stuff.“

At the heart of the film, these young people from the suburbs leave their neighborhood and encounter history, nature, and French culture. Beyond the film, it is the fight of several associations in Grigny. Bilel Ghenaim opens the doors of the association in which he works, the Youness Academy, an association that helps children from 6 years old.The goal is always to make them discover new things and get them out of Grigny for a while,” he explains.

“We realized that unfortunately, many of our young people had never seen anything other than Grigny.”

Bilel Ghenaim from the Youness Academy association

to franceinfo

Bilel Ghenaim says that in 2023, while organizing an outing to the Eiffel Tower with a group, they realized that at 16 years old, some had never seen the Eiffel Tower “while we are right next door” he exclaims. What if “the little ones“, “At first, they have little fear of leaving their neighborhood“, “every time“, the feedback is always positive.”It was important for us, already at first to give strength to the film and to what they proposed, to also give a little return on everything they do for the city.“, he continues. The film Golo and Ritchie is therefore an example for hundreds of young people and families living in Grigny.

It is also and above all an opportunity to change our perspective on this city and, more generally, on cities. As the city’s mayor, Philippe Rio, explains, “The media coverage of the suburbs is either the great sporting or cultural successes, or the violence. And in fact, between these two over-publicized poles, there is a void of these lives of people who work, who live their lives, who have disabilities“.

For him, this film, “It is a first look at something that was a blind spot. In the city of Grigny, there are stories of friendship between two young people with black skin who have all the codes of the suburbs and who talk about friendship, even love, and who go to meet France which, on paper, does not like them very much.“.

This film, funny, touching, above all allows us to change our perspective on this neighborhood, confides Golo.It’s not just drugs, it’s not just fighting, it’s not just violence: there’s also that side. That’s what we show and people are happy about that, he explains. When they see us, they say to us “Golo and Ritchie thank you, we are happy! There, you are giving off another image of the neighborhood and that is what we want to see. And we hope to show this side for as long as possible. Because there are beautiful things here and beautiful people, especially beautiful people. That is what is good.“.