The documentary "Land of rap" looks at rap outside the big cities

• Monday at 11 p.m., France 3 Occitanie broadcasts

  Terre de rap

  , directed by David Ctiborsky.

• The documentary meets four rappers from the region, Alanss, Yous MC, Devo TLR and Lombre.

• It is about the representation and the reach of rap outside the big cities.

Their names are Léo, Younès, Tyler and Andreas. They are between 21 and 28 years old and come from the south of France near Toulouse, Rodez or Montgiscard. What do they have in common? A passion for rap. One "raps to free his mind", the other to "digest the darker phases of his life". A third “written for those far from the lights” and the last to be “oneself”. Four courses that are at the heart of the musical documentary 

 broadcast this Monday at 11 p.m. on France 3 Occitanie, then on the France Télévisions platform.

A 52-minute film directed by David Ctiborsky (who has worked with artists such as Aya Nakamura or Iggy Pop and who recently signed the 2024 Olympics presentation film), where it is about the representation and the scope of rap outside large cities.

A documentary that challenges the stereotypes and clichés surrounding “country rap”.

"A void in the collective imagination"

The starting point of this project? An observation of the director on the lack of visibility of this music outside the big cities. “Rap is the most listened to music in France and surely one of the most practiced. But on the other hand, we realize that there is a sort of focus on the Paris region or Marseille, as if beyond these two poles, rap France was deserted, ”explains the director at

. His approach: to show that this music flourishes very well outside the cities and that the urban codes of rap travel to more rural areas. And a certain will to twist the neck to received ideas.

“As soon as we talked about the project, the rap and the campaign, there was the specter of Kamini lurking.

Eight times out of ten people smiled and referred to it.

A hackneyed comparison but it proves that there is a void in the collective imagination around that, which asks only to be filled, ”he believes.

Following a call for projects from France 3 Régions, David Ctiborsky looks at Occitania and goes there in search of rappers.

Thanks to recommendations or via social networks, he meets Alanss, Yous MC, Devo TLR and Lombre, their stage names.

"Breaking clichés and codes"

Four artists, four trajectories and as many ways of rapping. Stories that are told through interviews, but also in music with unpublished clips shot especially for the occasion. “I wanted it to be a film fueled by the imagination of the rappers themselves,” says the director. What fascinates me about the documentary is that it's not just one person who films another passively. There is an exchange between the two and it creates gaps in the real world that can be really interesting. "

also has the specificity to overlook the voiceover to give voice only to rappers. "If I film these guys it is to hear them and so that their music and their lyrics speak for them", he underlines.

In the course of the sequences, very different relationships with rap and rurality are also revealed. “For Lombre for example, whose influences do not come more from urban cultures than from other music, anchoring in the territory is something he really likes, he is proud of his city. Yous MC is different, because his experience is not only that of a rapper who lives in the countryside but also of a Franco-Moroccan guy who lives there, ”he analyzes. In the documentary, the rapper is particularly attached to the fact of not being reduced to an image.

“He knows that we are in a society where we have a huge tendency to categorize,” comments David Ctiborsky.

It is exactly against all that that he would like to fight and continue to express himself freely.

Breaking clichés and codes is also something common to all four.

And that's also one of the aims of this documentary.

"Show alternative images"

"I discovered with them that there is no rap from the countryside," he says.

They all have their worlds and yet they live in territories that are quite close to each other.

I have also discovered that sometimes it is enough to tell even a tiny bit of an artist's story for people to listen to and understand a lot more of their work, including people not. at all interested at the base, ”explains the director.

A perspective made possible by the long format of the documentary.

"Its strength is also to be able to show alternatives to clichés and to break this image associated with Kamini and all these folklore", affirms David Ctiborsky.

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