Presented in competition at the Venice Film Festival, Their children after thembased on the eponymous novel by Nicolas Mathieu, winner of the 2018 Prix Goncourt, is a moving social fresco by brothers Ludovic and Zoran Boukherma starring Paul Kircher, a young sensation of French cinema.
After stealing a canoe to go to the beach in the hopes of seeing naked girls, Anthony (Paul Kircher, The high school student, The animal kingdom) and his cousin (Louis Memmi), two 14-year-old working-class boys, meet Steph (Angelina Woreth) and her best friend (Anouk Villemin), who soon after invite them to a party at a friend’s house. In order to go there, Anthony dares to borrow his father’s (Gilles Lellouche) motorcycle, which has been stored in the garage for 20 years, even though his mother (Ludivine Sagnier) has told him it will cause a disaster.
At the small party, which is held in a luxurious home, Anthony understands that he does not belong to the same class as Steph. Then two boys of Maghrebi origin arrive, to whom the young, middle-class whites make them feel that they are not welcome. Anthony, thinking he is scoring points, trips one of them, Hacine (Sayyid El Alami). At the end of the evening, Anthony discovers that Hacine has run away with his father’s motorbike.
PHOTO PROVIDED BY PRODUCTION
Paul Kircher and Angelina Woreth in Their children after themby Ludovic and Zoran Boukherma.
“What interested me was exploring the mysterious time of adolescence, to see that the stories are similar between parents and their children. Adolescence for parents was a time when they felt more alive, more carefree,” Paul Kircher confided at a press conference on Saturday afternoon.
Gilles Lellouche dreamed of adapting for the cinema Their children after themby Nicolas Mathieu. However, as he was already working on the production of his film Love phewthe actor had to abandon the project. That’s when he invited Ludovic and Zoran Boukherma to lunch to offer them each a copy of the novel and to suggest that they make an adaptation of it.
“We knew Nicolas Mathieu, but we didn’t have the novel yet,” said Ludovic Boukherma. “The story resonated so much with us. We also grew up in the countryside, even if we don’t come from the east of France, it’s the France we grew up in. We had the idea of putting the France of the greatest number, the one that is invisible, back at the center and giving it a great story. So we seized the opportunity to bring this wonderful novel to the screen.”
“We come from a similar background to Anthony’s,” added Zoran Boukherma. “What really spoke to us was the way of talking about the working classes with a lot of light, the generosity of the writing and the very cinematic narration. We wanted to do the same thing in cinema.”
The author delighted
For his part, Nicolas Mathieu did not expect the twin brothers to follow his novel to the letter: “I wanted a good film, an autonomous and complete work. The minimum contract was that we find the portrait of this France, the love story and to follow these children who become adults. I am not the customs officer of my novel; it is their film and I am delighted with the result.”
After flirting with comedy (Willy 1er), the fantastic (Teddy) and horror (The year of the shark), with varying degrees of success according to French critics, Ludovic and Zoran Boukherma sensitively turn to social drama, drawing inspiration from the American cinema that illuminated their childhood in the southwest of France. In some scenes, particularly during the clashes between Anthony and Hacine, the young thirty-somethings seem to have borrowed from the codes of the western.
We wanted to make a popular film, to give it a cinematic aspect, not naturalistic, but generous and accessible. The film that inspired us the most is The Deer HunterWe had the image of the blast furnaces of the factories that tell the story of the generation of fathers who lost their jobs.
Ludovic Boukherma, co-director of Their children after them
Set in the 1990s, tinged with a sweet nostalgia, Their children after them follows the characters during the summers of their lives, from adolescence to adulthood, from small joys to big dramas, from one-night stands to heartbreaks. All lulled by American hits, including Born to Runby Bruce Springsteen, with which we regretfully leave this vibrant picture of the France of ordinary heroes.
“In the countryside, we listen to a lot of music in English. The American imagination that Bruce Springsteen represents is the link between social violence and physical violence,” said Zoran Boukherma. “We talk about social determinism, it’s cold, it’s violent, but we wanted to make people feel the impression of loving at 15, so the music softens the social message,” concluded Ludovic Boukherma.