On the occasion of the release of “Bâtiment 5”, a little focus on Alexis Manenti, the interpreter of the mayor in this film by Ladj Ly on poor housing.
Revealed to the general public by his role as a gruff policeman in Les Misérables (2019) by Ladj Ly, Alexis Manenti is this week starring in the director’s new shocking film, Bâtiment 5. He plays a pediatrician who becomes mayor of a city of suburbs, one of whose districts must be the subject of a redevelopment plan.
Building 5: is Ladj Ly’s film based on a true story?
Born in Paris in 1982, Alexis took his first steps in front of a camera via the Kourtrajmé collective, created by Kim Chapiron, Toumani Sangaré and Romain Gavras, with whom he starred in the short films Easy Pizza Rider (2002) and Désir dans l’espace (2004). In the cinema, he found his first role in the thriller Mea Culpa by Fred Cavayé.
He continues, still on the big screen, by playing a soldier on forced vacation in Voir du pays (2016) and continues with secondary roles in the biopic Le Divan de Staline (2017), the comedy Marry me mon pote (id.) , the thriller 9 Fingers (2018) and the science fiction film directed by Romain Duris In the fog (id.).
In 2019, Alexis Manenti gained notoriety with the award-winning Les Misérables (Jury Prize in Cannes and four Césars) by Ladj Ly, where he played one of the main characters alongside Damien Bonnard and Djebril Zonga. In this film taking place in a district of Montfermeil, he plays Chris, a BAC police officer with questionable methods.
This most striking performance allowed him to receive the César for best male hopeful in 2020. Note that he had already played this character in the short film of the same name that Ladj Ly directed two years previously (and that the actor co-scripted).
Mact Productions – Marianne Productions – JPG Films – BNP Paribas Pictures Hafsia Herzi and Alexis Manenti
Building on this performance, the Paris native was offered numerous roles: he played a drug trafficker with the promising Sandor Funtek in K Contrary (2020), a gas station manager in Poissonsexe (id.) and a journalist working with Pio Marmaï in Investigation into a state scandal.
In 2022, Alexis Manenti plays a caring educator in the intense Dalva, which deals with incest. That same year, he impressed once again in the skin of a charismatic and calm city dweller, but ready for the worst, in Athena on Netflix (directed by someone he knows well: Romain Gavras).
Definitely fond of social cinema, the actor plays Hafsia Herzi’s companion in 2023 in Le Rapissement and reunites with Ladj Ly for Bâtiment 5, where he slips into the skin of a young opportunist mayor. “I found it interesting to find him in a totally different role”confides the 45-year-old director.
Finally, Alexis is also active on the television side, as evidenced by his performances in the mini-series Une Ile, The Eddy and 6 X Confiné.es