55,000 spectators went to see “Tirailleurs” by Mathieu Vadepied when it was released in theaters this Wednesday, January 4. Omar Sy, who plays the main role of the film, wanted to thank them.
Tirailleurs with Omar Sy was released in theaters this Wednesday. Directed by Mathieu Vadepied, who has been developing the project for more than 10 years, the feature film traces the journey of a father and his son during the First World War.
In 1917, Bakary Diallo (Omar Sy) enlists in the French army to join Thierno (Alassane Diong), his 17-year-old son, who has been forcibly recruited.
Sent to the front, father and son will have to face the war together. Galvanized by the ardor of his officer who wants to lead him to the heart of the battle, Thierno will free himself and learn to become a man, while Bakary will do everything to save him from the fighting and bring him back safe and sound.
Presented at the opening of the Un Certain Regard section at the last Cannes Film Festival, Tirailleurs totaled 55,506 admissions (including 13,193 in AVP) when it was released in our theaters this Wednesday.
The feature film takes the lead in entries for the 1st day in France. Nostalgia by Mario Martone, with Pierfrancesco Favino, is in second place with 12,434 admissions (including 5,720 in AVP).
On social networks, Omar Sy thanked the spectators who went to see his film: “You are my strength & my France.”
The “#TropTardLesGars” refers to the recent controversy around the comments made by the actor in Le Parisien on the War in Ukraine. Words taken out of context according to the newspaper itself and taken up by far-right politicians.
Omar Sy has also reacted to this subject on RTL and declares: “We are trying to put a cloud of smoke around the promotion of my film. It’s a film about the First World War. (…) We try to divert the subject. It has become a bit of a carousel that has been in place for a few years around me. We let piss.”
And this solution seems to be the right one when we see the results of the film at the box office.
During our meeting with the film crew, director Mathieu Vadepied said he would like his film to lead to “many other stories on the subject“.
He added: “I would like public policies to take hold of this and help raise awareness. Do educational work in schools, perhaps modify the programs or history textbooks a little.“
“All memories make up our common history”: Omar Sy on Tirailleurs
Policy advances
On the day of the theatrical release of Tirailleurs, the Ministry of Solidarity announced that the last Senegalese Tirailleurs (about forty men aged over 90) could “return permanently to their country of origin without losing their minimum old age“.
A fight led for many years by the Association for the memory of Senegalese skirmishers.
FranceInfo specifies that so far, “veterans, born in the former French colonies in Africa and enlisted in the French army, were obliged to live at least six months of the year in France to collect their minimum old age. However, for several years they have been waging an administrative battle to end their lives in their country of origin..”