Shéhérazade

(Jean-Bernard Marlin, France, 2018)

Zach (Dylan Robert) is a teenager in Marseille, just out of jail. Unable to fit in with his family or former friends, he drifts toward the local prostitution scene, getting involved with (and eventually living off) his feisty girlfriend, Shéhérazade (Kenza Fortas).

Zach’s inability to truly commit to Shéhérazade and assume responsibility leads to violent, abusive consequences on the street – and the need for him to speak up for her in court. Can Zach alter his deepest, most ingrained values and assumptions?

In an immediate, immersive manner that recalls the films of Robert Guédiguian (for the Marseilles setting) and the Dardennes (for the way the camera sticks close to the characters, whether still or in motion), Shéhérazade at first appears to belong squarely (and nobly) within the camp of realistic, social issue cinema.

As it develops, however, it deftly steers itself into pockets of genre cinema (crime, street gangs, prison) and lyrical, romantic drama.

Ultimately, the film is about gender roles within a downtrodden underclass. Zach’s core problem is that he cannot respect “whores” (or transsexuals) as real “women” – even when he is in love with one.

Until Zach can transcend that prejudice, he’s going nowhere fast.

© Adrian Martin 25 Sep 2018