User reviews

There's more to certain things than meet the eye. A powerful story about two brothers who have a rough and violent father. Sometimes there is only one escape from that, as wrong as that may be. Not that I condone violence of any sort. This movie feels real and we do get intertwining storylines that further our understanding of why and how we got where we are.

Once in the system, the harsh reality is that the world is rough and the strong ones make up the rules. It's gritty, it is down and dirty and it will leave you with quite the gut punch and should be something you may remember for some time ... especially with those really good performances

This film reminds me LES HAUTS MURS, another film made in 2008 and adapted from an Auguste Le Breton's novel. Here we find the same atmosphere, same kind of characters and the relationships that exist between them. A very accurate picture of young delinquents, most of them raised by foster families, who never knew their actual parents, who never grew with love, affection or friendship. But I think it could have been better, more moving. The potential was there but the film makers seemed to hesitate to go further. Acting is over the top, except the scene where the mother meets her boys after several years. She should have been surprised, astonished, but no, she seemed to wait for them after only one week end of separation. I would also have preferred another darker ending.

A film dedicated to chavs, with a relatively elaborate scenario and quite successful characters despite fairly predictable clichés. The adolescents Darren Muselet and MHD play excellently, as well as the adults Jalil Lespert and Mark Grosy. I particularly enjoyed the scene alternating two events: 1) boxing between MHD (the alleged delinquent) and Aïssa Maïga (the shrink) and 2) the violent scene between MHD (the son) and Mark Grosy (the father).

As a synthesis: a lot of emotion despite a poor sense of nuance. 5/6 of 10