Les Miserables

Oscar Nominated! Best International Feature. "There are no trilled notes, no stirring group musical numbers, no talk of castles on clouds in French-Malian director Ladj Ly’s directorial debut. You will hear, however, the songs of angry men, expressed in a way that drives home the point of their rage and rancor. It is not a coincidence that this police procedural shares the same name of Victor Hugo’s socially-conscious 19th-century novel/Broadway musical source material; like the literary landmark, it also takes place in Montfermeil, the township where Les Miz‘s heroes and villains strutted and fretted. Nor is it by chance that we see young, biracial characters draped in the French flag and celebrating a national soccer victory in front of both the Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triomphe in the movie’s first five minutes. It’s a portrait of a diverse France but also a divided one, ruled by class structures, geographical boundaries and racial barriers. It takes place in a City of Light that sits on top of a powder keg, surrounded by match factories." - Rolling Stone