After the success of Les Miserables in 2019, Ladj Ly returns with Bâtiment 5, in theaters on December 6. If he continues his social questioning, the filmmaker also gives a greater place to committed young women, who struggle in the suburbs.
A committed film, in the direct line of Les Misérables
Haby (Anta Diaw), a young woman very involved in the life of her town, discovers that the neighborhood in which she grew up is going to be redeveloped. Indeed, Pierre Forge (Alexis Manenti), the mayor of the city, plans the demolition of building 5 where Haby lives with his family.
With her family, she launches into a standoff against the municipality and its great ambitions to prevent the destruction of their homes.
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Three awards at the Cannes Film Festival, four Césars and one Oscar nomination: this is the equation for success that Ladj Ly managed to establish in 2019 with Les Misérables.
Nearly four years later, the filmmaker is back with Bâtiment 5, in theaters from December 6. And if he continues in this new feature film the social questioning initiated in the first, the place he gives to female characters evolves drastically to become central.
Choice when writing the script or simple observation of a reality, the director has an opinion on the question.
“The image we have of women in the neighborhoods, who are hidden, is a cliché”
From Damien Bonnard to Djebril Zonga via Alexis Manenti (still present in Building 5), Wretched saw its plot essentially shared between male figures, with the exception of the brilliant Jeanne Balibar (also in the cast of the filmmaker’s latest film).
However, this absence was at no time part of a perspective of exclusion: “I have been criticized a lot for not having included enough female characters in Wretchedtell Ladj Ly. But we didn’t want it to be an essentially male subject, that the relationship with the police remained essentially “a guy’s story!”.”
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A regret that the director intends to correct in this new film, since women are not only more numerous, but also more committed. Between responsibilities and ambitions, these modern figures were not written to compensate for a lack of Miserablebut rather to represent a very real situation.
“Howevercontinues Ladj Ly, the more important place of women in Building 5 hasn’t been that conscious: it’s simply because it happens like that in reality.
They exist, are strong, fight. The image we have of women in the neighborhoods, who are said to be hidden, is a cliché. On the contrary, they are very present and active, particularly in the associative environment.”
If the charismatic Jeanne Balibar is back for a second collaboration with the filmmaker, two female characters stand out in this new feature film: Nathalie Forges, wife of the mayor played by Aurélia Petit, and Haby Keita, played by the young Anta Diaw.
If both are engaged in their own way, it is especially the latter who places herself at the center of the film and is a real beacon of hope and positive energy in an environment saturated with pressure.
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“With Haby, I try to instill a little hope in Building 5. Certainly, I show disillusioned characters, who no longer believe in it, but it represents a possible key to opening by deciding to get involved to the point of running for municipal elections. Nothing says that she will be elected, but at least the process is there.”
Discover Haby’s destiny in Bâtiment 5, by Ladj Ly, to be seen in cinemas from December 6.