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VIDEO. Ladj Ly presents his new film, “Bâtiment 5”
“I don’t really like this term ‘suburban cinema’”. For director Ladj Ly, what he does is “simply cinema”. In his latest film, Bâtiment 5, he deals with the question of poor housing. The action takes place in a working-class neighborhood in France. Brut met him with his actress Anta Diaw. – (Brut.)
“I don’t really like this term ‘suburban cinema’”. For director Ladj Ly, what he does is “simply cinema”. In his latest film, “Bâtiment 5”, he deals with of the issue of poor housing. The action takes place in a working-class neighborhood in France. Brut met him with his actress Anta Diaw.
With his film Building 5Ladj Ly wanted “pay tribute to all these women who live in these neighborhoods, who fight, who campaign” And “highlight all the work they do on site”. The heroine, Haby, played by Anta Diaw, is a woman “black, Muslim, who wears the veil”. A character “qthat we are not used to seeing in the cinema” comments the director, who grew up in the Bosquets district of Montfermeil in Seine-Saint-Denis. Since he was 17, with his childhood friends Kim Chapiron and Romain Gavras from the Kourtrajmé collective, he has been making films for “tell different stories, tell our stories”.
“With my screenwriter, Giordano Gederlini, we make sure not to fall into caricature”
Since the film’s 1995 release Hatethe review speaks of a “suburban cinema”. A term that displeases Ladj Ly: “I feel like this puts us in a box once again. The cinema that I make remains cinema, period. (…) Each time, confining ourselves to boxes is a bit boring”. He deplores that the few films that talk about French working-class neighborhoods talk about them in “wrong” and make “caricatures”. “Some people make films that talk about neighborhoods when they don’t know them at all (…) and inevitably we’re in a caricature and it’s a little disturbing. (…) It’s important to talk about other stories, because there are also lots of positive things happening in these neighborhoods” declares Ladj Ly. The film Building 5 has been in theaters since December 6.
