“You gave me your mud and I made it gold»: the poet Charles Baudelaire thus described the poetic alchemy which consists in sublimating ugliness or horror. But we could also summon another poetic figure to define the film we are going to talk about at length this Saturday: the elegy, this song of mourning, a tribute to the deceased. But nothing plaintive here or heavy, “Pour la France” instead celebrates the life, the vitality, the promises of a brilliant young man, born in Algeria, who came to France with his mother and brother to flee the violence of the black decade. He wanted to serve France in the army, and had joined the prestigious Saint Cyr Coëtquidan officer school.
But he died tragically during a hazing ritual. This young man was the director’s brother: Jallal Hami, who died on the night of October 29 to 30, 2012.
This tragic event, Rachid Hami sublimated it in his second feature film For France. A film which speaks of the French identity, of the double culture, with nuances and romance.
On the bill of our cinema also, the cinema newspaper and a report in Sweden by our correspondent Carlotta Morteo who attended the Gothenburg Festival at a special screening of Without filter, Palme d’Or at the last Cannes Film Festival with director Ruben Öslund as theater driver.