Château: A comedy of errors set in the Parisian immigrant community
- Premiering in Warsaw’s competition programme for first- and second-time filmmakers, Modi Barry and Cédric Ido’s movie subverts the conventions of highbrow drama
Films about the life of immigrant communities are rarely light-hearted; more often than not, they point at poverty-induced problems, make political statements or are involved in the controversy of filmmaking politics themselves, even when they are made to be subversive (think Celine Sciamma’s Girlhood [+see also:
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interview: Céline Sciamma
interview: Céline Sciamma
film profile]). The cinematic life of African – or other immigrant – neighbourhoods and suburbs in Europe seems destined to eternally be defined by crime, harshness and violence. But as rare as those portrayals are, it is even rarer to find a dramedy, a comedy, a farce or a comedy of errors, even, set in these surroundings. And where better for such a film to be made than in France, famous both for its cinematic genre of the banlieue film and as the home of the rich tradition of the farce?
Château [+see also:
trailer
film profile], directed by Modi Barry and Cédric Ido, and screening in the Competition 1-2 section of the Warsaw Film Festival, is precisely that. Named after Château d’Eau, a Metro station near Gare de l’Est in Paris with a vibrant African community built around it, it tells the story of Charles (played by Jacky Ido, the director’s brother and the memorable Marcel from Inglourious Basterds [+see also:
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film profile]), who earns his living by stopping people on the street and persuading them to visit the nearby hairdresser’s and beauty salons, using as many tricks as he can still comfortably fit up his purportedly designer-made sleeve. But what he really dreams of is owning his own barber shop, and he knows exactly which one he wants – even if the current owner is a Kurdish poet at heart, whom Charles claims to have a “special relationship” with. The trouble is, he seems to be stuck making a living “hustling”, even if he is the smoothest (and the best-dressed) of all the hustlers. In Château d’Eau, with its fast-paced street life, illegal immigrants, hopeful entrepreneurs, Ivory Coast DJs and shady Nigerian bosses named after famous musicians, everyone seems to be tricking everyone else, no matter how many promises of honesty they make to each other or what their feelings for each other truly are.
The screenwriting by both of the directors and Joseph Denize (from an original idea by Matthew Gledhill) is at its best here: if Château is a comedy of errors, one of them must be tragic. In the struggle to forge a better life for oneself, even at the expense of others, all of the true feelings of fondness, the friendships and the unfulfilled loves must come second – and as things stand, they never even get a chance. The Othellian owner of the beauty salon, the rich but insecure Dan (Gilles Cohen), seems destined to live a life without peace, while Charles only realises what his true feelings are once it is too late. It is truly delightful how Château appropriates the conventions of European drama, coded as “high culture”, and subverts them with both the language and the setting of a diametrically opposite side of the cultural spectrum, those of the immigrants and the working class. And this means, at the very least, that Barry and Ido are setting themselves up to be intriguing filmmakers with future works to watch out for.
Château was produced by France’s SRAB Films, One World Films, M 141 Productions and Happiness Distribution, which is also in charge of its French distribution. The film is sold worldwide by MK2.
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