2019 French film director Raj Lee The Oscar-nominated thriller made a grand arrival. Les Miserables.His follow-up explores a similar milieu in a Parisian suburb divided along class and racial lines. Les Undesirables It depicts the tension between activists and an upstart mayor seeking to marginalize a working-class neighborhood. Ahead of the film’s screening at Film at Lincoln Center’s French Cinema Rendez-Vous 2024, Award Radar spoke with Lee about the making of the film and its resonant themes.
Shane Slater: How did you come up with the idea for this film?
Raj Lee:When I wrote Les Miserables, the idea already existed. But obviously not everything will fit in his one movie. So the structure of breaking things up and doing sequels and then coming up with his trilogy was there from the beginning. The starting point was the idea of having these three chapters spanning 30 years of living in the same area, with the first chapter dealing with the issue of police violence, the second dealing with the housing crisis, and the third. Chapters are to follow.
SS: The scene at the beginning of the movie where the coffin goes down the stairs is very solemn compared to the tension in the rest of the movie. How did you arrive at this opening and this tone?
LL: It was very important to me to start the film with as strong a sequence as possible. The most powerful scene setting possible. And the question that my co-writer and I had was, “What can we do that captures all the problems that the people living in this building and these stairs could face in one scene?” It was something. So having the casket lowered like this for about five minutes was the decision we made to start the rest of the movie.
SS: The character of Roger Roche was very interesting and reminded me of the main character in the movie The Mountains. His demolition work is causing the gentrification of his community. How did you approach writing and casting this character?
LL: This character was inspired by someone I knew. Unfortunately, such people who are driven by ambition do exist. Often people start with good intentions but end up betraying themselves and the communities for which they had good intentions. In terms of casting, Steve Tianchu and I worked together. Les Miserables, There he played the mayor. So it was kind of a natural progression for him to become deputy mayor here.
SS: Your films have a strong activist quality. What impact has your filmmaking had on the issues you are tackling?
LL:Certainly, my first film had a huge impact, probably even bigger than this one. The housing crisis seems to be a topic that people are a little less interested in than police violence. But the first one definitely had some influence, albeit on a smaller scale but still to some extent, in changing some things in the discourse.
In fact, what these films and successes mean to us is that we can continue this project of starting film schools that we run in four different countries. We’re aiming for more if we can. They provide free film education and train a new generation of people to tell their own stories.
SS: The ending is very memorable and can be interpreted in many different ways. Do you feel hopeful or pessimistic?
LL: It’s an ending that I hope will leave people feeling hopeful, especially because of the way Anta’s character (Javy Keita) rejects violence and hopefully comes to power for herself. It’s one thing to complain about certain conditions, but the only way to actually do something about it is to commit to entering that power, and hopefully as that chronology progresses she becomes mayor. I hope that I will be able to take up the position.