The World is Yours on Netflix: How a Court Hearing Inspired the Role of Isabelle Adjani

The world is yours : life teaches them nothing

After having signed numerous short films with the Kourtrajmé collective, clips for artists like Justice, MIA or even Jay-Z and Kanye West, a first film entitled Our day Will Come, Romain Gavras unveils The world is yours in 2018. If this title evokes Tony Montana, the main character of this comedy has ambitions opposite to those of the gangster played by Al Pacino in Scarface.

Portrayed by Karim Leklou, François dreams of giving up the sale of drugs and organized crime. His project: to afford a small plot of tranquility and develop the Mister Freeze brand in Morocco. But to take this path, he must amass a tidy sum of money. His mother Dany (Isabelle Adjani) having blazed all his savings, he agrees to bring back a large quantity of narcotics from Spain for Poutine (Sofian Khammes), the boss of his neighborhood.

Accompanied by Henri (Vincent Cassel), ex of Dany who saw him grow up and softened by several years in the shade, Lamya (Oulaya Amamra), the woman he loves an expert in theft, as well as Mohamed (Mounir Amamra) and Mohamed (Mahamadou Sangaré), two apprentice gangsters in the pay of Putin, François goes to Benidorm. And with such a team, the transaction obviously does not go as planned …

The sense of listening and observation

Comedy that alternates Between absurd situations and scenes tinged with melancholy, The world is yours unveils endearing and colorful protagonists. Romain Gavras appropriates an ultra codified genre. He demystifies the figure of the gangster by focusing on fragile and touching individuals.

The director poses a look full of tenderness on François, Lamya and the others, characters who are often overwhelmed and who find it difficult to escape their environment. Philippe Katerine, François Damiens and Sam Spruell complete the cast of this film where we no longer know which side are the good guys and the bad guys.

To develop the plot and the different narrative arcs, the filmmaker is inspired by real situations. With its co-scriptwriters Karim Boukercha and Noé Debré, it is based in particular on the slices of life of acquaintances having gone wrong. It also feeds on stories and anecdotes told by lawyers. It is also in court, while he attends an immediate appearance, that Romain Gavras sees the birth of Dany. Quoted by Allocine, he remembers seeing:

A Versace mother, a Jewish mother, overflowing with a stifling, overwhelming love, both very singular and relatively ‘normal’.

He adds :

It caused a personal echo. I thought then that there was a line to draw something that touched me: in the film, there are mostly fragile guys, surrounded by strong women, like François, stuck between his mother and his girlfriend.

Artistic love at first sight

Romain Gravras offers the role of Dany, mother hen, gentle and sometimes cruel with her son, to Isabelle Adjani. As she confides to Figaro, the actress is “seduced” by “the pop vision he had of his film”. The winner of five César continues:

I quickly realized that being led by him would be a source of jubilation. And that was confirmed for me and also for my great partners. A real happiness, this shoot!

As for the director, he is also full of praise for the actress. In an interview with the magazine Number, he declares :

I am a fan of Isabelle who, beyond being a French icon, is a magnificent actress. As I started working with her, I realized how funny, fast and smart she is. We started shopping for Versace pieces together to create the character. Isabelle has done the splits so many times during her career that she does not belong to a single cinema family. That’s what I like about her.

A real artistic love at first sight, which ended in a pact. Isabelle Adjani and Romain Gravras are promised to work together on all of the filmmaker’s upcoming projects.