Paris (AFP)
Alexis Manenti as a nervous policeman in "Les Misérables" by Ladj Ly and Lyna Khoudri in "Papicha", on the fate of young Algerian women in the 90s, received the Cesar of the best male and female hopes on Friday evening.
"I want to share this award with Ladj Ly. It is above all a story of friendship that started with the cinema, of complicity and I hope that we will continue to celebrate all of this together," declared Alexis Manenti, receiving his price.
This 38-year-old actor inherited the role probably the least sympathetic, that of the borderline cop, with cowboy methods, always in the balance of power and the invective in "Les Misérables", film stretched over a burr in a sensitive city from Seine-Saint-Denis.
If he is crowned "hope" today, the 38-year-old actor is not quite a newcomer in the French cinematographic landscape, already appeared in Fanny's "Divan de Staline" (2016) Ardant.
Screenwriter, member of the Kourtrajmé collective, created in 1994 by Kim Chapiron, Toumani Sangaré and Romain Gavras, Alexis Manenti participated in the writing of "Les Misérables".
This year it will be in the credits of the series directed by Damien Chazelle "The Eddy".
Lyna Khoudri, 27, was rewarded for her role as Nedjma, a student in Algiers in the 90s who dreams of becoming a fashion designer and refuses Islamist terror in "Papicha", a film which has already won her Valois for best actress at the Angoulême French Film Festival.
"I have dreamed of this moment for a long time," she said, moved, receiving her prize. "And there it is true, and I tell myself why, and at the same time I say why not," she added.
Born in Algiers, daughter of a journalist and a violin teacher who had to leave Algeria in the 90s, Lyna Khoudri previously played in particular in "Les Bienheureux" by Sofia Djama, which won her the Orizzonti Prize for the best actress in Venice in 2017.
She also recently played in particular in "Hors Norms" by Olivier Nakache and Eric Toledano and in Rebecca Zlotowski's mini-series "Les Sauvages", with Roschdy Zem.
It will soon appear in the Wes Anderson film "The French Dispatch".
© 2020 AFP