Steve Achiepo directs a hard-hitting social thriller about poor housing and those who trade in it

There’s joy in the first images of Steve Achiepo’s fictional feature film, The Sandman, in theaters February 15. But it will be temporary. Among the guests of this evening at Djo’s, interpreted by Moussa Mansaly, there is Tantine Félicité (Aïssa Maïga) and her three children who do not know where to sleep. By opening the door to them, Djo, who lives with his mother and welcomes his daughter there in joint custody, will put his hand in a gear.

In his frantic quest to find a home for Félicité, who like thousands of others fled Côte d’Ivoire because of the political crisis that hit the country in 2011, he will inexorably turn into a sleeper. His intentions are however laudable at the start: Félicité asks him to help other refugees like her and Djo, himself, wants to leave his mother’s now overcrowded apartment.

The Sandman is a painful exploration of poor housing and unworthy habitat. We pile up, we walk on each other, we suffer promiscuity which can have consequences when you are a divorced father in charge of his little girl. Not to mention the hygiene issues. Steve Achiepo’s film sometimes looks like a documentary as it is concrete. The feature film is supported by the Abbé Pierre Foundation, which campaigns against precarious housing.

The dilemma to fuel the suspense

Filmed up close, like most of the film’s protagonists, Moussa Mansaly gives flesh to his character with great veracity.. The director Steve Achiepo and his hero grab the viewer not to let go. The suspense is fed by the dilemma that never leaves Djo, faced with unbearable situations in his new business. He’s not the only one either. The mother of her daughter, Aurore (Ophélie Bau), is a social worker who feels increasingly helpless in the face of the distress of those who come to her. Achiepo thus develops, in parallel, two universes facing the same difficulties. The cases of conscience of the social worker, who must “respect” THE “procedures”, echo, in another register, the pressures suffered by Djo who joined forces with a thug. The latter, embodied by Benoît Magimel, illustrates the criminal indifference of real bastards who have become masters in the exploitation of human misery.

In The Sandman, the photo is dark and the colors saturated: like in this scene where Djo recovers from his emotions in a long corridor dressed in red furniture. This gloomy atmosphere, accentuated by the soundtrack of the exceptional Amine Bouhafa, reinforces the subject of the fiction. Steve Achiepo, who offered himself a small (but powerful) role, perfectly masters his narration and shows his talents as a director. Especially in the way he uses the gaze of Augustine (Anysha Nsa Zimbu), one of Félicité’s children, as a window on Djo’s bad conscience. Or when it comes to describing the unspeakable because this is what poor housing and those who profit from it, flouting human dignity, refer to. Steve Achiepo’s first feature film is a success, both for its social impact and for its aesthetic bias.

The sheet

Gender : Drama
Director: steve achiepo
Actors: Moussa Mansaly, Aïssa Maïga, Ophelie Bau, Mamadou Minté and Benoît Magimel
Country : France
Duration : 1h46
Exit : February 15, 2023
Distributer : The Jokers Movies

Summary: Marked by years in prison, Djo, a parcel deliverer in the Parisian suburbs, lives modestly with his mother with his daughter. One day, an aunt who has just fled the Ivorian conflict arrives at their home with her three children. In a hurry, Djo manages to find them a place. But faced with the growing demand and with the prospect of offering a decent life to his daughter, Djo switches and becomes a sleep dealer.