Fantasia 2023 Review: LES RASCALS

Paris. 1984.

 

Les Rascals are a gang of five life long friends. A diverse group, they are made up of two white French boys and one Cambodian French lad. Then there is Ruddy, the one Black French boy, and his best friend Rico, the lone Arab French boy. Wearing matching blue jackets with yellow printing on the back, they have adopted a 50s Greaser look to stand out from the crowd. They drink, carrouse and fight their way through the nights in Paris. 

 

Ruddy’s mother does not approve, of course. Their other son is in jail, leaving the two of them to look after their grandson/nephew Mitch, an aspiring break dancer and promising student. Mitch holds all the promise for the future of the family. Ruddy is aimless and, at the moment, it looks like their only way out is to join up for the mandatory national service in the military. 

 

Ruddy and Rico have been specifically bonded together since they were attacked by local tough guy and skinhead Loki when they were kids. The group comes across Loki years later in a record store that the former skinhead owns. Still traumatized by that attack, Rico goes off on Loki, beating him near death. What they do not know is that Loki’s sister, Frederique (Fred), was hiding in the back room, looking on in horror as their brother was being beaten. It is a galvanzing moment for her.

 

At the recommendation of their college professor to help them push through on their late dissertation, Fred is paired up with Adam, a young man with ties to far right groups in the city and the far right political group, the National Front. Adam would worship the ground that Loki stood on,  were they still involved with skinhead gangs in the city.

 

Adam then begins to reach out to other gangs in the city, seeking out these Rascals, so that Fred can get back at them for what they did to their brother. Loki pleads with them not to do anything about it but Fred is already on that slippery slope. Existing, racial prejudices are inflamed by Adam and leaders of the racist, anti-immigrant wave, sending tremors through the underground. The fuse is lit and a powder keg of racially motivated hatred and authoritarian exploitation is set to blow up the Parisian streets. It whiffs of American History X.

 

The story has split off on two paths; the first of Ruddy and their future, their family and Les Rascals. It also follows the radicalization of Fred into a branch of far right politics and hate mongering as they look to get back at the gang for what they did to their brother. 

 

This is where we began to have a concern with Les Rascals, the jumping back and forth between the two story lines. It succeeds in breaking up momentum and disrupting emotional attachment. We appreciate that the radicalization of Fred is important to portray here, a small sliver of a growing problem in society at the time. It has nothing to do with content -- Les Rascals speaks of another time that is still, unfortunately, relevant almost 40 years after the real-life events it attaches itself to -- but a whole lot to do with how that story was presented to its audience. Our emotional responses to moments in the film are constantly interrupted. 

 

It is worth wading through that disarray in the middle act because when the two paths converge in the final act, tragedy begins to roll out in waves. This is not malicious in any sense; we are not tragedy festishists, but the story builds with lingering dread that these two groups were eventually going to meet up, and not for a round of drinks and a chorus of La vie en rose. 

 

Director Jimmy Laporal-Trésor and their writers, Virak Thun and Sébastien Birchler, place their film right on the cusp of race riots by skinhead groups in Paris in 1984. From the tragic and sickening events in the story, we are led into footage of news reports from the events. We are watching this film weeks after the death of Nahel M at the hands of a police officer in a Paris suburb. Has anything changed at all?

 

Les Rascals does succeed at the end of evoking strong emotions against those who have twisted the narrative to their advantage, or to those who abuse their authority. You are screaming for justice in your head by the end of this story. The final shot suggests that retribution is standing at the door,  though.