Lebanon1982. To respect a promise made to an old friend, Georges (Laurent Laffite) goes to Beyrouth for a project as utopian as it is risky: staging Antigone in order to steal a moment of peace in the heart of a fratricidal conflict. The characters will be played by actors from different political and religious camps.
Lost in a city and a conflict he does not know, Georges is guided by Marwan (Simon Abkarian). This is the starting point for David Oelhoffen’s new feature film which speaks as much about love and brotherhood as it does about war and destruction. The director gives the keys to this powerful story.
What made you want to adapt this book by Sorj Chalandon?
He’s an author that fascinates me. I have read all his books. When I received a call from Christine Rouxel, the producer, who had just acquired the rights to Fourth wall and offered to bring it to the screen, I said yes immediately. Even if this adaptation seemed to me to be a real gamble: it’s a hard, bitter story, a complicated film to make…
Is it difficult to understand this war that shook Lebanon in the 1980s?
For me the film is not intended to explain this conflict. Neither does the novel. Some keys to understanding are certainly given, but for Georges this war remains opaque, until the end […] Georges’ theatrical project which is at the center of the story moves me. It is at the same time a delusional enterprise, a little megalomaniacal in its political objectives, and a fragile, poetic and marginal project in its realization. A utopia.
Is theater actually very present?
The fourth wall is actually an adaptation of Antigone. I found Sorj Chalandon’s idea of adapting this figure in a contemporary French story brilliant. But on the sly. Without announcing it. Georges makes a promise to Sam. Then once he has convinced all these people to follow him, Georges is a prisoner of the trust they place in him. It’s like a Fatum, a destiny that is stronger than him, acts like a force that surpasses him.
Is it also a film about war?
It’s not so much the war that attracts me, but the moments of historical change. Because these are situations where questions linked to identity arise in a very brutal way for the characters […] This is the outbreak of the Algerian war for Far from men (2015), the Japanese coup in Indochina in March 1945 for The Last Men (2024). And even in Enemy brothers (2018), which is a thriller, the story is triggered by a murder that disorganizes a criminal clan.
Does the film resonate with recent news?
-The fourth wall was completed before October 7, 2023. I was struck to see images on the news channels so close to those in the film. And when I watched the film again, I cried […] What is a little dizzying is that the Lebanese team who made this film finds itself in a situation close to the one we tried so hard to represent. In his own way The fourth wall expresses it: reality is unbearably brutal. You must not submit to it. We must continue to carry utopias, so that sooner or later, hope reappears.
Still showing
The room next door
By Pedro Almodovar. 1 h 47
« Ingrid and Martha, long-time friends, began their careers at the same magazine. When Ingrid becomes a successful novelist and Martha a war reporter, their paths diverge. But years later, their paths cross again in disturbing circumstances… » The beauty of Almodovar’s direction, the talent of his two actresses – Tilda Swinton and Julianne Moore – and a highly sensitive subject that the director manages not to make boring or tearful, these are the ingredients that make The room next dooran instant masterpiece. Already one of the great films of 2025.
Memoirs of a snail
They Adam Elliot. 1 h 34
« When her father dies, the happy and marginal life of Grace Pudel, a snail collector and reading enthusiast, is shattered. Torn from her twin brother Gilbert, she ends up in a foster family on the other side of Australia. Hanging on her brother’s letters, ignored by her guardians and harassed by her classmates, Grace sinks into despair. Until the saving encounter with Pinky, an eccentric octogenarian who will teach him to love life and come out of his shell… » Specializing in stop-motion (volume animation technique), Adam Elliot has become a master in the field. But, beyond the technique, it is also with his stories and his very particular universe that the director stands out. Like his courts, Harvey Krumpet or Ernie Biscuithe does it again here with this wonderful poetic story around Grace Pudel, a snail collector.
I’m still here
By Walter Salles. 2:15 a.m.
« Rio, 1971, under the military dictatorship. The Paivas’ large house, near the beach, is a haven of life, of shared words, of games, of meetings. Until the day when men from the regime come to arrest Rubens, the father of the family, who disappears without a trace. His wife Eunice and his five children will then lead a fierce fight in search of the truth… » The phenomenon film by Walter Salles (Central do Brasil, On the road) arrives in France after winning over more than 3 million spectators in Brazil. Already rewarded in Venice and at the Golden Globes, the film is in the race for the Oscars, in particular its lead actress, Fernanda Torres, already announced as a favorite in the role of this courageous mother.
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