User Reviews

This is the story of how and why Zahia & Fettouma Ziouani created the Divertimento orchestra in France. Zahia and Fettouma are twins, from the working class city of Stains in Seine Saint Denis. Fettouma plays the cello and Zahia plays the Alto, but dreams of directing an orchestra. In their last year of high school, they arrive in a bourgeois high school in Paris, where they are insulted and ill treated by most of the class, not willing to let them integrate into their class. Both Zahia and Fattema are prodigies, but also very clever girls. They are top of their class, and try to integrate into a world that is not theirs. While giving a lecture to the class, Sergiu Celibidache, a maestro, discovers that Zahia has what it takes to become a maestro, and gives her the opportunity to learn in his private class, where she also takes her sister to play in the orchestra. Zahia clearly loves music, and in her own words, music is what makes her feel happy and whole. However she is coming in a world where only 6% of maestros are females (only 4% in France), and from a world that is not accustomed to. This is where Fettouma gives her the idea to have an orchestra of her own, that resembles her, young, and diverse. With the help of her sister, Zahia requests a room from her city Stains, and recruits people to play in it. From students in their Parisian high school, to the Stains music conservatory, they ask everyone interested to join the orchestra. The idea of the orchestra is to bring together people, and use music as a way to elevate everyone, from the inhabitants of Seine Saint Denis, to the kids having a shared purpose. This movie is basically what I would have wanted Tár to be, showing all the struggles of a woman trying to go into a male world, purely on talent alone, as she doesn't have anything or anyone able to help her in. The actors are great, and the story well made. I fully recommend, especially if you love classical music.