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Some film makers are forever linked with one particular city. For Woody Allen, it's New York; for Barry Levinson, Baltimore. For French director Robert Gu茅diguian, it's the city of Marseilles.
In "Marius et Jeanette", "脌 la Place du Coeur", and "脌 L'attaque!", Gu茅diguian told stories of ordinary folk in the working-class region of Estaque struggling against the evil forces of racism, globalisation, and poverty. That theme is continued in "La Ville est Tranquille (The Town is Quiet)", an ambitious, multi-layered drama in which drug abuse, prostitution, and murder merge to offer a bitter commentary on the social injustices of modern-day France.
Mich猫le (Ariane Ascaride) works nights in a fish market to finance her daughter's heroin addiction. When that's not enough, she sells her body to Paul (Jean-Pierre Darroussin), a striking docker who has turned his back on the cause to become a cabbie. Her supplier is Gerard (Gerard Meylan), a bar owner with a lucrative sideline in contract killing. His latest target is Claude (Pierre Banderet), a wealthy snob whose wife is so disgusted by him she takes up with an African ex-convict.
Through the interlocking narratives and their unexpected resolutions, Gu茅diguian paints a vivid portrait of a city divided between an indolent elite and the disenfranchised poor. Far Right rhetoric festers an atmosphere of violence and hatred, but the director does hold out hope for a kinder, more decent world - represented by a young Russian musical prodigy who, thanks to a charity appeal, finally gets the grand piano of his dreams.
"La Ville est Tranquille" is released in UK cinemas on Friday 19th October.
