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part of
double bill #10
Akaboum
Visions du Réel
2019
This is the story of a gang of teenage boys from the north-western part of Paris. We follow them in their wanderings, from the suburb of Cergy to that of Marne-la-Vallée. Somewhere between documentary and fiction, we are plunged into the superimposed worlds of the gangs' experiences and fantasies—a portrait of contemporary suburban youth seeking to invent a new collective identity against the backdrop of France in the throes of recession.
Bio Manon Vila
Manon Vila (France, 1987) is a visual artist. She obtained her Bachelor's degree at the High School of Arts and Design (HEAD) in Geneva and graduated in Fine Arts at Goldsmith College in 2017. The implicit concern of her work relies on the idea that music has a reciprocal relationship with the society it stems from. Both are entangled in a system of mutual influences. Each one defines and characterises the other. In the diverse visual or auditory performances of contemporary music, significant political, economic, and ideological matters are at stake, which is what Manon Vila's work questions.
According to its credits, Akaboum, the multi-awarded short film by Manon Vila, was created in participation with the YGRK club. Many friends from Cergy-Pontoise, a new town built in the 80s and riddled with architectural follies, live their daily lives with odd jobs and buddies squatting indefinitely at their homes. The director proposes a game in her set-up: to compose a film through their eyes that would displace the established order, whether architectural or simply normative. The young protagonists play out their lives in a territory that the film skillfully reframes. Landmarks are blurred: this place might as well be in Asia or the Middle East. Names become fantastical, and if you look closely, buildings start to move. The YGRK club then sets out to escape the monotony of these spaces—headed for parties, early-morning afters, and more magical places, which they have created from scratch thanks to their creative energy.
In the Parisian suburbs, a group of adolescents wander, looking for a rave party. The city’s peripheral architecture goes by like the setting of a retro futuristic adventure gone wrong; the governmental utopia of the housing estates, the laminated dream of the Euro Disney Park, the playgrounds and sports areas now used as spaces for getting high. The Parisian suburbs are thus revealed like the theatre of a failed political project, which has only intensified the differences between the deprived neighbourhoods and the city centre. However, the youth filmed by Manon Vila is not defeated. It is strong, proud, intelligent and full of hope. By filming this wandering in search of pleasure, the director explores the physical, political and urban frontiers of the district. With a very surprising poetic liberty, Akaboum questions the official discourse on colonial heritage and social marginalisation. A film that shakes up the stereotypes built around the notion of fringes.
Credits
Script
Cast
Adam Saïti , Elias Saïti , William Sume, Xavier Godard, Youssouf Benhida
Camera
Mathilde Cathelin
Editor
Gabriel Gonzalez
Sound
Aurélien Bony, Guillaume Etchegoyen, Quentin Desclaux
Music
Moku John
Producer
Nora Rotman