The title of this French film comes from the famous mathematical theorem by Archimides of Syracuse, a sort of play on words as written by a student on a blackboard. The setting for this story is a huge housing project outside Paris, something that might be another world, completely removed from the city which is so near, but yet so far away. The huge buildings in a lot of European cities are the home of poor, mostly African immigrants. Crime seems to be the only way out for some of the unemployed youths living in those complexes, as shown in the film.
At the center of the tale are two teenagers without jobs who has nothing better to do than do petty thieving, or even pickpocketing in the transit system. Madjid, of Algerian background, lives with his parents and siblings in one of the apartments. It is hard for him to get a job because he is obviously not French, something his mother refuses to do because even if they are in France, she feels nothing for her adoptive country and has no intention of giving up her nationality. Madjid, being thus limited, must learn fast the way of the streets.
His pal, Patrick, although French, feels no need to go into any job that will pay him minimum way. He knows he can do better stealing whatever he can to satisfy his basic needs. We watch him and Madjid get into all kinds of trouble. Obviously, they have not discovered the profit in drugs yet, so their world revolves around the housing complex where they have become a pest most people would like to get rid of.
The film is hard to sit through because some of the violence shown, but it gives the viewer a bird's eye view of that world. Directed with conviction by Mehdi Charef, it is a chronicle of those areas that were in the news in later years. Perhaps this helps illustrate the frustrations and discrimination most of the people of those housing projects live under on a daily basis. The mostly unknown crew do a good job for director Charef.
At the center of the tale are two teenagers without jobs who has nothing better to do than do petty thieving, or even pickpocketing in the transit system. Madjid, of Algerian background, lives with his parents and siblings in one of the apartments. It is hard for him to get a job because he is obviously not French, something his mother refuses to do because even if they are in France, she feels nothing for her adoptive country and has no intention of giving up her nationality. Madjid, being thus limited, must learn fast the way of the streets.
His pal, Patrick, although French, feels no need to go into any job that will pay him minimum way. He knows he can do better stealing whatever he can to satisfy his basic needs. We watch him and Madjid get into all kinds of trouble. Obviously, they have not discovered the profit in drugs yet, so their world revolves around the housing complex where they have become a pest most people would like to get rid of.
The film is hard to sit through because some of the violence shown, but it gives the viewer a bird's eye view of that world. Directed with conviction by Mehdi Charef, it is a chronicle of those areas that were in the news in later years. Perhaps this helps illustrate the frustrations and discrimination most of the people of those housing projects live under on a daily basis. The mostly unknown crew do a good job for director Charef.