LE ROI DES OMBRES/ IN HIS SHADOW

France, 2023, 89 minutes, Colour.

Kaaris, Alassane Diong, Carl Malapa, Assa Syllam Issaka Sawadogo, Mareme N;Diaye,

Directed by Marc Fouchard.

French thriller in the suburbs of Paris, taking audiences back to films like La Haine and the probing of racial issues in the suburbs.

The focus is on two half-brothers, the older falling out with his father, becoming a leading thug in the area with his own brutal gang, the younger, while blinded in an accident when young, ambitious to compose music.

The film goes back to the boy’s childhood, the accident for the younger boy’s blindness, his mother attributing it to local witchcraft. But, his father is devoted, encouraging him with games to the blind and Braille encouragements. The blind man has a good friend, Malik, who is in love with the boys’ sister. There are also the two mothers.

In the present, we see the struggles with the gangs, the violence, the older brother sentimental about his family but also brutal. He leaves his stash at the blind man’s apartment. However, a rival gang steals the money and the blind man goes to them to plead for it to be returned, his brother assuming that is in league with the rival gang, taking him, subjecting him to violence, as well as the blind man’s mother.

Unexpectedly, the blind man connects with the witch from the past and goes through a ritual and he recovers his sight. Which means then that he can feigning being blind while seeing and so tries to rectify the situation, but ultimately a fight with his brother and his brother’s death.

Dramatic and intense material.

1. A French urban story? The neighbourhood? The migrants, racial and religious backgrounds? Crime?
2. The city, apartments, the streets? Atmosphere? The musical score?
3. A story of family, parents, half-brothers, sister, bonds, tensions?
4. Introduction to Adama, blind, the game, Malik, his friend? The flashbacks to the past, the two boys, their father and his sternness, the mothers? The accident, Adama losing his sight, Ibrahim and his responsibility? The father and his care of his blind son, the game, the Braille encouragement? The skills of the game? The walking stick, guiding him? The clash with Ibrahim? The apartment, the father disowning his son, motivation?
5. Adama growing up, blind, the music, friends, his sister, the bond with his mother? The relationship with Ibrahim?
6. Ibrahim, thugs, violence, guns, gangs? Money, the protection racket? Abraham and the money, with Adama, the rival gang coming, the brutality, taking the money, Ibrahim blaming his brother, the violence? Malik, and his relationship with Adama, with the sister? Secret?
7. The gang coming to take Ibrahim’s money, Adama being blamed, Adama going to the gang trying to get it back, Ibrahim suspicions, that Adama was taking sides, the brutal repercussions, isolating him, his mother?
8. The blindness, the background of witches and powers, Adama and the encounter with the witch, the spell, regaining his sight, gradually, fully? His disguising it?
9. Adama and his decisions, to use his regain site, pretending to be blind, going to the building, the old lady and protecting her, climbing into the apartment, the confrontation with Ibrahim, stabbing him? The sister and her reaction?
10. Calling the police, the gangs, the police warming, the arrests, the blind man walking through? His having got his mother to safety? The bond again with Malik? With his sister?