Kim Chapiron’s latest film, “The Young Imam”, is inspired by real events to describe the trajectory of a young man somewhat fascinated by money and in search of maternal love.
“He’s a thief, your son!” This sentence launched in a scene of the last film of Kim Chapiron in theaters on April 26, The Young Imam, is precisely the one that Madame Diallo (Hady Berthé) has always refused to hear. This is the reason why she will send Ali to his country of origin, Mali. Objective: to put lead in the head of the 14-year-old teenager.
In her native village, Madame Diallo entrusts her offspring to Cheikh Boubacar (Issaka Sawadogo) who raises him in a madrasa (Koranic school). The punishment will last for a decade. When Ali returns, he thinks of launching into the export of unsold products online, but it is rather a career as an imam that awaits him.
A connected imam
THE young imam is a long flashback during which Kim Chapiron (Sheitan, The bestseries Guyana) gives the spectator time to get to know Ali, interpreted as an adult with phlegm by Abdulah Sissoko, stunning in his first major role in the cinema. As a teenager, the character seems fascinated by the money he ends up stealing: the look that Chapiron’s camera captures, a few minutes before his hero commits his theft, is unequivocal.
When Ali later returns to France and its suburbs, apparently freed from his demons, and is propelled into being the imam of his neighborhood, he has all the cards in hand to succeed. He sings the prayers (Koranic cantillation) like no other and his modern sermons, advocating a religious practice in tune with the times, touch the hearts of many faithful. “Only criticism saves the religious from idolatry”, he recalls in his mosque. Now a star of social networks, the charismatic imam then plans to make his little revolution: make the pilgrimage to Mecca, the 5th pillar of Islam, accessible to all.
Power up
This sacred rite that every Muslim dreams of accomplishing at least once in their life is no picnic. The rules are set by the organizing country, Saudi Arabia, which allocates quotas to each state wishing to send pilgrims. Both administratively and financially, places are therefore expensive and are the subject of a particular trade, of which travel agencies were the queens until recently and which is likely to generate scams. These news items inspired Kim Chapiron, who co-wrote with his friend – filmmaker Ladj Ly (Wretched) – the story of young imam.
Beyond the Muslim religion and in the age of social networks, Chapiron’s fiction revisits the influence that religious leaders can have on the faithful of their place of worship, provided that they are gifted in transmitting the divine word. However, notes the wise predecessor of young Ali, “Actions are only as good as intentions in Islam”. “What kind of imam are you ?, asks her mother for her part. “What’s your business?” adds his sister. Thus, between the dialogues and a staging that is both suave – like the main character – and energetic, Chapiron manages to maintain interest in a story whose fall seems obvious by offering an original perspective on a theme recurrent in cinema: the way in which personal and family histories determine ultimately the life of a community.
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The sheet
Gender : drama
Director: Kim Chapiron
Actors: With Abdulah Sissoko, Hady Berthé and Moussa Cissé
Country : France
Duration : 1h38
Exit : April 26 2023
Distributer : The pact