San Sebastian (Spain) (AFP)
French director Laurent Cantet presented his new film, "Arthur Rambo", on Sunday on the destruction of a reputation on social networks, on the occasion of the Spanish festival of San Sebastian.
The feature film follows a young author, played by Rabah Nait Oufella, of a generation in which "even if they were born with social networks, I believe that there is sometimes a misunderstanding of their operation", explained the director, winner of a Palme d'Or for "Entre les Murs" in 2008, and two Césars for "Human Resources" (1999).
The story of "Arthur Rambo" is based on the real story of Mehdi Meklat, a 25-year-old French author who had acquired notoriety by chronicling disadvantaged neighborhoods in particular, before stopping everything in the face of the discovery in 2017 of thousands of his anti-Semitic, homophobic, racist and sexist tweets.
The film tells the story of Karim D, a young writer of Algerian origin who lives in the suburbs of Paris and has just published his first novel on immigration, which quickly propels him to fame.
His book is on the verge of being adapted for the cinema when a series of his anti-Semitic and homophobic tweets, published under the pseudo “Arthur Rambo” overturn everything, forcing him to confront those around him and find a way out.
"He is a fairly representative character of our time, also representative of a social divide which is very marked in France, and especially in Paris, between the Parisian world and the suburbs," said the 60-year-old director.
The Franco-Algerian actor Rabah Nait Oufella, 28, stood out in 2008 under the direction of Cantet with "Entre les Murs".
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