Omar Sy points to the hell of the "Tirailleurs" of the First World War

• A Senegalese and his young son find themselves in France during the First World War, conscripted by force into the army.

• Omar Sy plays the role of this protective father in "Tirailleurs" by Mathieu Vadepied.

• This powerful film evokes the memory of these soldiers whose history is unknown.

Omar Sy is overwhelming in

by Mathieu Vadepied, discovered out of competition at Cannes.

He finds there a role of a mature man, father of a teenager enlisted by force in the French army during the First World War.

The relationship between the two heroes develops in the midst of the chaos of a particularly deadly conflict.

“The story touched me on two levels because I am both father and son”, explains Omar Sy to

.

The man who became a soldier to protect his offspring sees the latter transform into an adult who no longer accepts his authority.

Military and family battles respond to each other in the heart of a powerful film.

Thinking of the "Unknown Soldier"

"It's in the canteen while the filming of

of which he was chief operator, that Mathieu Vadepied asked me if the Unknown Soldier could be a rifleman, remembers Omar Sy.

I then wondered why I had never asked myself the question.

The actor and director give the answer with as much respect as showmanship in

.

They pay a vibrant tribute to the African soldiers of the First World War.

“We often associate skirmishers with the Second World War, insists Omar Sy.

I thought it was important to remedy the lack of information I had about them.

»

The film reveals to what extent these sacrifices, sometimes kidnapped

from their villages to defend France, were sent to a country where even the climate seemed hostile to them.

In this dreadful context, the heroes come to divide, each having their own conception of the best way to fight but above all to survive.

Faced with Omar Sy, the young Alassane Diong, is breathtaking.

He perfectly renders the maturity that his childish character acquires painfully, thrown into the middle of a violence that makes him grow up before his time.

“In real life, Alassane is my nephew, explains Omar Sy.

This helped us to develop the relationship between this protective father and this son seeking to free himself from his influence.

»

Both exciting and instructive,

turns out to be a war film rich in suspense as the viewer becomes attached to its protagonists.

The natural sympathy that Omar Sy exudes, beyond a polemical interpretation of his remarks which had no reason to exist, makes this page of history vibrate with an undeniable supplement of soul.

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