After "Rester Vertical" (2016), a raw and dreamlike dive into rural life, and "L'inconnu du lac" (2013), a thriller on the outskirts of a gay cruising spot, the 57-year-old filmmaker has chosen this time to immerse yourself in an urban environment, in Clermont-Ferrand, for this "Come, I'll take you", in theaters on Wednesday.
Dividing, without concession, at the risk of appearing messy, the film is thought of as a comedy "about the difficulty we have in understanding each other, in getting along", between "communities and social classes" explained Alain Guiraudie, engaged on the left and close to the communists, to AFP during the Berlinale, where he was presented.
This film follows a gallery of characters drawn by Guiraudie, around the figure of Médéric (Jean-Charles Clichet), candid jogger and self-entrepreneur in the digital world.
He falls in love with a fifty-year-old prostitute, Isadora (Noémie Lvovsky), beaten by her husband, whom she has no intention of leaving.
Paranoia seizes the city when a jihadist commando commits an attack in the city center.
A suspect manages to flee, casting suspicion on all the young men of Arab origin.
Among them, Selim (Iliès Kadri), a homeless man in his twenties, who finds refuge in Médéric's building.
This does not fail to divide the inhabitants of the place, torn between fear and altruism.
"I treat the theory of the great replacement with a certain derision", declares Alain Guiraudie, who calls himself "very average Frenchman in the head".
"Beyond that, the film deals with how (terrorism) has influenced our lives, something deeper in society than just the shock of the attacks," adds the director, who drew characters steeped in contradictions. , never where you expect them.
Director Alain Guiraudie (d) and actor Jean-Charles Clichet (g), February 22, 2022 in Paris JOEL SAGET AFP / Archives
Among these consequences, the "fear of the Muslim" and the reinforcement of prejudices against "the other, the one who does not have the same skin color", and young people of North African origin in particular: "the other is a object of concern but also of desire, does he want us good or bad, it is a big question”, underlines the director.
© 2022 AFP