Bobigny (AFP)
The multi-awarded director of "Miserable" Ladj Ly was heard Tuesday and Wednesday in police custody as part of the money laundering investigation targeting the association that oversees his film school in Seine-Saint-Denis, we have learned from sources close to the investigation.
The 40-year-old filmmaker and his brother Amadou were questioned by the Seine-Saint-Denis judicial police in connection with the preliminary investigation, opened in February 2020 by the Bobigny prosecutor's office, for breach of trust and money laundering against of their association La Cité des Arts Visuels.
Their custody began on Tuesday and were lifted early Wednesday afternoon, said the Bobigny prosecutor's office, specifying that the investigation is continuing.
Contacted by AFP, Me Julia Minkowski, the filmmaker's lawyer, did not wish to comment.
This investigation gave rise in January to a search of the premises of the association in Montfermeil, this city in the Paris suburbs where the filmmaker grew up, lives and has set up his film school.
Member of the artistic collective Kourtrajmé ("short film" in verlan), Ladj Ly rose to international notoriety in 2019 with his punchy film "Les Misérables".
Award-winning, critically acclaimed, this gloomy picture of the suburbs has toured the planet and aroused the enthusiasm of the 7th art community for the director's work.
The Kourtrajmé school offers free training without age conditions or diploma in cinema or image art.
The young establishment already has a number of prestigious collaborators and partners, from the artist JR to the American platform Netflix.
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