THE WORST ONES
| 2023 – 99′ – Drama, Coming of age
Written by Lise Akoka, Romane Gueret, Éléonore Gurrey.
Directed by Lise Akoka, Romane Gueret.
Starring Mallory Wanecque, Timéo Mahaut, Johan Heldenbergh, Esther Archambault, Loïc Pech, Mélina Vanderplancke, Angélique Gernez, Matthias Jacquin, Dominique Frot.
Official Selection Cannes Film Festival 2022 (Un Certain Regard – Grand Prize Winner), Toronto IFF. West Coast Premiere Premiere at The American French Film Festival (Best First Film Award winner).
In French with English subtitles.
A Kino Lorber release.|
A group of astonishingly gifted newcomers turn in powerful performances in this first feature from former casting directors Lise Akoka and Romane Gueret. Falling somewhere between an ethical critique on the long French tradition of casting non-professional street kids in “banlieue” films, and an homage to that very genre, The Worst Ones uses a film-within-a-film structure to recount the story of a somewhat manipulative middle-aged Belgian director shooting a film in a housing project in northern France. While the director unapologetically purloins elements from the personal lives of his young cast, it’s the nuance and emotional range of those very actors — clearly due to the talents of this film’s directors — that catch us off guard and give the film its poignant punch.