About the Film
In his new film, Arthur Rambo, Laurent Cantet captures the schizophrenia of social networks within the grim precarity of being both French and Arab in modern Paris. Loosely based on the story of one time Parisian radio commentator Mehdi Meklat, we meet Karim D (played brilliantly by Rabah Naït Oufella), a second-generation Algerian immigrant, as he is celebrating the publication of his first book, Débarquement, with the elite of the Parisian literary scene. Based on his mother’s experiences, the book offers a fresh look at the Parisian housing projects in the suburbs, immigration and integration.
Relaxed and confident, Karim enjoys his new fame, surprised yet pleased by the attention. Suddenly we notice barely legible tweets flitting across his phone screen, their pace steadily quickening. The content is horrific – anti-Semitic, homophobic, misogynistic, and racist. And all published under his teenage pseudonym, “Arthur Rambo.” In a few minutes, his world collapses. His descent into hell begins.
Over a frantic 48-hour period, narrated cinematically with an ever-quickening, staccato visual rhythm, chaos overtakes Karim’s life as he hurriedly leaves the party, incapable of a coherent response to his many accusers’ question: “why did you write these?” Put on trial first by his editor, then by his second-generation friends who found a place they can't risk losing in Parisian society, then by his colleagues at an online TV station for whom the tweets discredit all they have achieved and stand for, then by his unsophisticated younger brothers for whom Rambo was a trusted voice, and finally, by his mother's distraught incomprehension. All feel betrayed for different reasons. Karim finds it impossible to answer properly to any of them.
Cantet avoids passing judgment or imposing certitudes, leaving us to interpret Karim’s motivation. The film accepts that it cannot explain everything.
Nicole Guillemet
