Artus signs his first production, at the cinema this Wednesday. A sunny and touching comedy with actors with disabilities. We met Artus and the actress Alice Belaïdi.
What is it about ?
To escape the police, a son and his father on the run are forced to find refuge in a summer camp for young adults with disabilities, posing as a resident and his specialized educator. The beginning of trouble and a wonderful human experience that will change them forever.
The actor and comedian Artus is moving on to directing. On May 1st, he unveils Un p’tit truc plus, a comedy with many people with disabilities in the cast.
“The desire to make this film goes back even further than the creation of the character of Sylvain. There was also sktech in disabled sports. It’s a subject that I have always dealt with because it has always been taboo. For me, it’s important to talk about it, because we need to “debunk” it. I don’t know if this is being said, but in any case, the day it is no longer taboo, we will have passed a milestone. (…) There is a need to talk about it. As with many themes and many things that need to be trivialized.“
Almost 30 years after Le Huitième jour, the film with Daniel Auteuil and Pascal Duquenne, which greatly moved and touched the public at the time, Un p’tit truc en plus continues this path, that of finding a balance between humor, emotion and above all a great kindness, which can awaken consciences.
“I have always wanted to show what people with mental disabilities are capable of: they have an incredible imagination, a magic, or a madness, that you don’t find elsewhere. It’s with them that I wanted to make a film.”he adds in the press kit.
I have a bratty side: the more you tell me not to go on a subject, the more I go!
And added: “differences are a strength, I am convinced. If we can laugh about it, it’s healthy and it’s better: I myself was fat and I was the first to make jokes about my body… – Anyway, I have a side brat: the more you tell me not to go on a subject, the more I go there. And five years ago, I started writing this film.“
At our microphone, the actress Alice Belaïdi: “we are not making a film about disability. It’s a comedy with people and actors with disabilities. And that changes everything.”
If this film can open the door just a little bit like it opened my door
“It’s a comedy in which two worlds meet: these young disabled people will open their arms to them, full of love, laughter, love… It’s a human encounter. And obviously we weren’t going to make fun of them. In any case, if this film can open the door just a little bit like it opened my door…”
A film with a caring message
If A little thing in addition is above all a comedy, whose primary objective is to laugh and have a good time, the idea is also to rethink one’s relationships and know how to “open the door” as Alice Belaïdi nicely puts it .
She adds, to our microphone: “To sometimes get over your fear of difference and open the door a little, to confront your fear. I think it would really do us all good to mix more and take some of their poetry, their simplicity, their truth.”
And Artus concludes: “Don’t be afraid to do wrong, because it’s worse to do nothing. Go to them and then, at worst, if you say something stupid, you say something stupid, but it’s better than not going!“
A Little Something Extra directed by Artus is released in cinemas this Wednesday, May 1, 2024.
