Emma Benestan, Franco-Algerian director, signs her first feature film, “Fragile”. A delicious comedy that highlights Yasin Houicha, Oulaya Amamra, Raphaël Quenard and Tiphaine Daviot. On view now in French-speaking cinemas.
The story begins in the very cinematic town of Sète in France. Between the waves of salt water, the filming of detective series, oysters and the sun, Azzedine, known as Az, played by Yasin Houicha, oyster farmer with a big heart, proposes to his girlfriend Jessica (Tiphaine Daviot) to marry him.
For that, what could be more romantic than slipping a ring… into an oyster? A tasty idea that turns into a nightmare, because Jess, on the verge of choking, declines Az’s marriage proposal between two hiccups, before declaring that she wants to take a break. Devastated, the young man returns to live with his mother, cries all day, stuffs himself with chocolate and watches “Bodyguard” over and over.
>> To see: the trailer of the film
The broken heart for men
For Emma Benestan, director of the film as well as for Nour Ben Salem, co-screenwriter, it was necessary to offer another flavor to the usual romantic comedy. And to show, for once, not a woman with a tragically broken heart, but a man, moreover, a man from immigration.
The director explains to the RTS: “Not always telling stories with people from immigrant backgrounds who are delinquents, thugs or in precariousness and drugs, seemed essential to us. We said to ourselves that it would be good to make a film where we love each other and that is the problem of our lives”.
I wondered if, with such a title, “Fragile”, boys would pass the casting. In fact, there were many candidates. For some, I wondered why they were showing up. To justify themselves, they said: “My great-grandfather is Kabyle!”. It was very funny and I said to myself that politically, it was very strong. Suddenly, it became cool to be Arab in France.
An Algerian dirty-dancing
The music of the film, composed of both euphoric raï and the languorous voice of Cheb Hasni, becomes for the protagonists and for the spectators, an ode to Algerian romanticism. Regarding the music, the actor Yasin Houicha, reveals to the RTS a funny detail: “When I listen to raï, I have memories in France and when I listen to American pop, I have memories in Algeria. , so in fact, it’s borderless”. To create the role of Az, which he embodies perfectly on the screen, the French actor indicates that he was inspired by Aladdin, Leonardo DiCaprio, Hugh Grant and especially himself.
In the fiction, to win Jessica back, Az asks Lila, the magnificent Oulaya Amamra, to teach him how to dance. She accepts, in exchange for horns of gazelles deliciously cooked by the chilled lover. But will a dance step be enough for the young woman to fall in love again?
Layla Shlonsky/ld