Ladj Ly: “The police have the green light to kill blacks and Arabs”
The director denounces police violence at the Toronto Film Festival, where he presents his new film, Building 5.
Four years later Wretched, Ladj Ly revealed the first images of Building 5 last week. Screened for the first time at the Toronto Film Festival, his new film continues to paint the portrait of a suburb punctuated by police violence and political injustice.
This Sunday during the festival, the director also supported his speech denouncing this violence in a discussion with The Hollywood Reporter. “There is absolutely no political will to improve things”he said. “The problems that affected the suburbs have now spread to the rest of France”he continued, mentioning in particular the police repression during the yellow vest crisis in 2018.
“The police have the green light to kill blacks and Arabs. The government no longer gives the impression of having control over the police forces”he added before recalling that his primary inspiration for 25 years has come from the neighborhood where he grew up in Montfermeil. “It is my mission as an artist to bear witness to and denounce my living conditions, because I live there.”
Building 5 follows Haby (Anta Diaw, recently seen in The Young Imam by Kim Chapiron), a young woman very involved in the life of her town who is fighting against the demolition of the building where she grew up. Faced with the young pediatrician who is the mayor of the city (Manenti), she will count on the fed up of the population to try to prevent the destruction of building 5. In the cast, we also find Alexis Manenti and Steve Tientcheu, who were already playing in Wretched.
The film will be released on December 6 in French theaters. Here is the trailer:
