Blaine: I’ll start this off by saying that most movies will have a title that is similar to another movie and this “Les Miserables” isn’t the musical, it’s a different kind of “Les Miserables”.
Plot (Spoiler Alert)
Stephane joins the Anti-Crime Brigade of Montfermeil and is assigned to work with Gwada and Chris. The people of Montfermeil dislike the police, thinking they are more like bullies instead of men of the law.
Blaine: “Les Miserables” is based on writer and director Ladj Ly’s own experiences growing up in Montfermeil. It's a miserable place, where a lot of people are unemployed and are being bullied by the police. No one outside the area knows or probably cares about it. The things that go on in that area have gone on since the 80s. As miserable as things were in Montfermeil, that didn’t get in the way of Ladj Ly wanting to achieve a career in film. It was probably the only thing that kept him alive. Ladj Ly would take a camera everywhere with him and document the stuff that goes on in Montfermeil. Ladj Ly managed to record a cop being violent and posted the footage online. The cop was suspended after that footage went public and it was all thanks to Ladj Ly. Ladj has been wanting change and he thought if he could show the public one piece of what things are like in Montfermeil then maybe he should continue showing more of what people are going through in that area. Ladj made a documentary about Montfermeil and then transformed it into a short film.
Ladj thought maybe it would be better as a full length feature instead of a short at first, but it would be best to start off with something small. Making short films is a good way to practice before making a full length feature. Ladj Ly is a fan of Victor Hugo’s novel, “Les Miserables”, and one of the locations the novel takes place in is Montfermeil. Les Miserables means The Miserable and Montfermeil, as I said is a miserable place. Ladj Ly named his short film “Les Miserables” as a reference. After Ladj Ly was done making the short film, he felt it was time to take things to the next level with a full length feature.
Actors Damien Bonnard, Djebril Zonga and Alexis Manenti had starred in Ladj Ly’s original short film, and they returned for the full length feature as the same characters they played. The full length feature would be re-introducing the characters in sort of a different way. Damien, Djebril and Alexis were given a homework assignment by Ladj to get to know these fictional characters more. It was their job to bring these characters to life and figure out their personalities. They would do the research while the script was in works. The actors learned useful information about the police, and they shared it with Ladj. That information sounded very useful and Ladj decided to add it into the script. Djibril Zonga, who plays Gwada, met with a cop who grew up in Montfermeil and it got him curious to know why someone who grew up in an area that hates cops would want to be a cop himself. Djebril then found out there was more police officers like that and they all had the same answer for Djibril which was being a police officer was a way to survive and leave the past behind them.
Stephane is the new cop in town, even though he’s been in the area before, but things have changed since he was there last. Stephane is assigned to work with Gwada and Chris and they wander through the streets in car to see if anyone is causing trouble. Chris usually harasses people for no reason and picks on them too. He’s the asshole of the group. Stephane is not fond of what he is seeing. He feels both guys take things too far.
A lion cub was taken from a circus and the police are in charge of getting it back. It’s clear to a lot of people who stole the lion. It was a kid named Issa. Issa has had problems with the authorities in the past and has managed to get himself into trouble a lot. The police go running after Issa and Issa's friends try to help him. Things get out of control and Gwada hits Issa in the face with teargas. Issa’s face is damaged, and the police panic. Of course that’s not the only problem they’ve got.
There’s this kid named Buzz who likes to peep a lot at women getting undressed. He uses his drone for that and it’s wrong to look at people having a private moment. But Buzz ends up putting his peeping skills to really good use. His drone captures the incident between Issa and the police on camera, which means it’s evidence. And if that footage gets out, then those police officers will be in serious trouble. A lot of the kids witnessed what happened to Issa, but Buzz is like a key witness because he can expose those police officers through the footage. Ladj said that the cops in the film are unprofessional at what they do and the panic after damaging Issa. Stephane is the only one who knows what the right thing to do is and that is take Issa to the hospital. But Gwada and Chris refuse. They’d rather figure out a way to cover their asses. They leave Issa with these guys who look like thugs, while they find Buzz.
Buzz goes to someone he trusts, Salah, a restaurant owner. The police show and demand the memory card with the footage. Stephane wants to handle things in the calm way, so he goes in the back with Salah to reason with him in order to get the memory card. So the cops end up getting the footage.
The cub gets returned to the circus and Issa apologizes, but the ringleader is not finished with him yet. The ringleader wants Issa to learn a lesson that he’ll never forget and he does it in a threatening way by putting Issa in a cage with a full grown lion. Issa is scared to death. Issa has been through a lot and has had problems in life, but this is the worst. The police damaged his face and he was almost lion bate. Issa is let go, but he is hurt for the way he has been treated.
Stephane is the only cop in the group who has a conscience and can tell right from wrong. Although, he has trouble speaking up what he really wants to say. He doesn’t stand up for what is right, he just lets others take complete control of the situation. You can tell he is disgusted with things because it’s written all over his face. Damien Bonnard, the actor who plays Stephane, described the character as someone who has a lot of experience in being a police officer and asks himself if he should quit the force because he hates all nasty things that go on in it.
As for Gwada and Chris, as much as they are upset with how the day went, I don’t think they’ll ever learn. They just want to pretend nothing happened. They defiantly don’t deserve to get away with this. All they do is treat people nasty and act like they run the country. I’m not sure if they can live with themselves. What happened was hard on them too, but they’re afraid of getting into trouble. Gwada goes home to his mother and she can tell something’s up, and it looks like he does want to confess what happened, but he decides to keep his mouth shut, even though letting it out and talking about it might help.
“Les Miserables” has some great camera movement in it. During the scene where the police are going after Issa, the camera is focussing on Issa from the side as he is running and going at the same pace as him. Then the camera backs up and continues to focus on Issa but from a wider point of view. There’s also shots where the camera is hovering over buildings. Half of those are showing the drone’s point of view, whenever there is scenes involving the drone. I also like the two shots where the sun is hitting the camera, during sunrise or sunset. One shot shows Issa looking at the sunrise and the other has the camera coming down from a high point of view while shooting these buildings with the sunset behind them.
Another thing about Victor Hugo’s novel is that it involves poor people coming together to form a revolution against the authorities. Through this “Les Miserables" you see the things that go on in Montfermeil and that’s the whole point. Ladj also wanted to show what he imagines will happen.
The next day, Stephane, Chris and Gwada are wandering through the streets again. Issa shows up out of nowhere with a few others, hits their car with a flare and they go after him. The police are being lured into a abandoned building, which is almost like a maze inside. What they don’t know is that it’s a trap. Everyone has had enough of the police and the way they treat them. They come up as a herd on the bottom part of the building. They’ll throw carts and other stuff down the stairs to make sure the police are blocked. Those people will be coming in from all over the place. The building is turning into a war zone and it’s insane. Finally, the police have reached a dead end. There’s a door, but it’s locked.
Issa is the leader of the people. He has had things harder compared to everyone else and has taken a lot of damage for it. This has gone too far for him and now it’s payback time. The ending to “Les Miserables” really blew my mind away and there’s no telling what is going to happen. The last thing you see is Issa holding a Molotov cocktail and he is about to use it on the police. Stephane is aiming his gun at Issa telling him not to do this. Stephane doesn’t want to shoot Issa, he understands the pain Issa is feeling. Stephane can see how serious Issa is the more he looks at him. The reason Issa is like this was caused by the police and they’ve turned him into something else. I think Stephane is also realizing that both him and the other two had this coming. Everything goes black after that.
There are three ways I see “Les Miserables" end. One, Stephane shoots Issa dead, so that way Issa doesn’t set them on fire. Of course that wouldn’t stop anything because even if Stephane took Issa out, there’s still people surrounding the building who want to make sure those cops suffer. The second way of seeing the ending is Stephane not having the guts to shoot a kid, whether he’s dangerous or not. And then, Issa would make his move and has the cops burnt alive. Ladj Ly said the ending is supposed to make the audience believe that there is hope, meaning the police will make it out alive because Issa chose to spare their lives and this is the start of things changing. That’s the third way of seeing the ending. So even if Issa is full of rage, maybe somewhere deep inside him there’s a side that shows peace.
Ladj Ly wants the public to see this film, to see the things that go on in Montfermeil. It disappoints him that no changes have been made, but he hopes his film can help make a change. Everyone from that area, including Ladj Ly have been trying to explain what life is like for them, but no one seems to hear them out. “Les Miserables” found it’s way to the Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Jury Prize. It was also nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the Oscars. It won the Best Film and the Audience Award at the Cesar Awards, so that tells ya “Les Miserables” is getting attention from people.
My rating on "Les Miserables” is five out of five stars
