portrait of a female biker on fire

THE OPINION OF THE “WORLD” – NOT TO BE MISSED

Presented at the Cannes Film Festival in May, this daring first feature film by Lola Quivoron is a kind of immersion in the world of cross-country, an urban acrobatic practice on a motorcycle from working-class neighborhoods in the United States, considered by some users as a discipline in its own right. The film does not arrive virgin on the big screens. Firstly because it caused a sensation at Cannes. Then because the growing practice of urban rodeos – if indeed the two denominations can be combined – has become an extremely sensitive subject in recent months because of the trouble and accidents it generates among local residents.

Evidenced by the controversy that erupted following remarks made during the Festival by the director on Konbini website, which called into question the intervention of the police in the origin of certain accidents related to this kind of practice. The mayor of Cannes, David Lisnard (Les Républicains), as well as certain police unions did not fail to strongly condemn these remarks.

The fact that the debate has ignited around the words of the filmmaker rather than from his film should encourage us to return to the work. This would be the best way to appease him, since, fundamentally, the purpose of the film is not to glorify rodeos or to stage the confrontation of bikers with the police, but to exercise, from the Inside this environment and in an approach more behaviorist than ideological, a reflection with double trigger around the marginality of its characters. Either, on the one hand, an ostentatious, criminal and cheats death mode of existence of the young people of the housing estates who defy in doing so their social reclusion. Or, on the other hand, the intrusion into this seriously testosterone-ridden environment of a young woman who comes, at the risk of her life, to challenge the guys on their own ground.

Two-faced deity

Her name is Julia. Julie Ledru, real biker in life, interprets it on very high voltage. The story of a girl who nobody wants at home, who frees herself by motorbike and will try to force the recognition of a group of cross bitumen enthusiasts gathered around an underground garage, led by a confirmed thug , Domino, who runs their crimes from the prison where he is serving his sentence. Despised by the gang, Julia will carve out her place with blows of bluff, fearlessness and anti-seduction. Some will be sensitive to her charm, such as Kais, who desires her without really knowing how to go about it, or Ophelia, Domino’s wife, who remains cloistered at home with their young son, like a model of female alienation under the law. middle. Kylian, on the other hand, champion of tricks, whom she rescued on the track, has a tenacious hatred for her, as if it were a disgrace in the eyes of the group to find themselves in a weak position in front of a woman.

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