La Faute à Voltaire

Poetical Refugee
Directed by	Abdellatif Kechiche
Produced by	Jean-François Lepetit
Written by	Abdellatif Kechiche
Starring	Sami Bouajila Élodie Bouchez Bruno Lochet
Cinematography	Dominique Brenguier Marie-Emmanuelle Spencer
Edited by	Annick Baly Tina Baz Amina Mazani
Release date	February 14, 2001
Running time	130 minutess
Country	France
Language	French

Poetical Refugee (French: La Faute à Voltaire) is a 2000 French drama film directed by Abdellatif Kechiche, starring Sami Bouajila, Élodie Bouchez and Bruno Lochet. It was Kechiche‘s debut feature film and was awarded the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival for best first film, winning seven awards, overall, at different film festivals.

Like Voltaire‘s Candide in his eponymous novel, Jallel, a young North-African man, dreaming of better prospects, immigrates illegally to France. He struggles at first as he is unable to find work and finds it difficult to make friends. But soon he gets to sell fruits in the underground, albeit illegally. He also makes some new friends and then falls in love. But his dreams of success remain unrealized as he comes to discover and share the solidarity of the other outcasts going from one encounter to the other, making his way through Paris, from hostels to immigrant aid societies and social welfare groups, living among the excluded and the destitute.

"With superb performances by Sami Bouajila (Bye Bye), Aure Atika and Elodie Bouchez (The Dream Life of Angels), Poetical Refugee offers a moving and tender portrayal of life on the margins, a review by Cinema of the World noted.

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