Intergenerational injustice in a Parisian banlieue. Ladj Ly’s contemporary reframing of Les Misérables

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article analyses Ladj Ly’s Les Misérables as a depiction of a generational conflict in a contemporary banlieue. The film stresses that age-related mistreatment is an abuse of power in parity with ethnic discrimination and social exclusion. When local authority figures are prepared to sacrifice a boy to secure their power game, the young banlieusards retaliate with violence. The uprising is visualised as an act of revenge owing to this intergenerational injustice. Several narrative and cinematic strategies are used to represent the children’s powerlessness. The film is told from the perspective of a policeman, but highlights the boys’ difficult position. By linking Les Misérables to Victor Hugo’s novel, Ly underlines that the children’s uprising must be seen as the struggle of an age class, fighting for full citizenship and democratic rights. The futility of revenge is balanced by the alliance between the violent rebel and a budding visual activist, suggesting that the young generation of today can use cameras as a new weapon against intergenerational injustice. The article further approaches Les Misérables as an example of Nicholas Mirzoeff’s idea of countervisuality. It ultimately argues that Ly claims the children’s ‘right to look’ and to demand a better society.