Think back to the 1990s — to movies like Boyz n the Hood or Menace II Society.
Now, imagine one of those movies shot in black and white, with prayer beads and scenes from a mosque. And imagine it all in French.
That’s the recipe for the new film, May Allah Bless France!, opening in the US next week. The man behind the camera is also the character at the heart of the film. His name is Abd Al Malik, and he’s a big deal in France. He’s a best-selling rapper, a poet and an acclaimed author, and, now, a filmmaker.
A slim and youthful 40, Al Malik was born to Congolese Catholic parents but is an observant Muslim. He says May Allah Bless France! isn’t just a hip-hop movie.
“My movie isn’t just a visual exercise — it’s deeply political,” he says. “It has political value because it can be useful to the community.”
That community is in the depressed suburbs of France. The film opens with a montage of black and brown faces against the tower blocks of the city of Strasbourg. Cut to images of SWAT teams breaking down doors in the neighborhood and wrestling with suspects under arrest.
These are the same communities that have been under scrutiny since the attacks atCharlie Hebdo earlier this year. It’s where so many of France’s millions of Muslim immigrants live, and, as in the communities they mirror in the US, hip-hop is the soundtrack here.
On the song “Tin Soldier,” Al Malik recounts the violence he saw as a young man. “I’d seen death by overdose, firearm, blade or rope,” he raps. “A smile and some attention may have made a difference. We’d have been normal and not child soldiers.”
It’s this song that helped make him a star in France nearly 10 years ago years ago, when he says the music needed a dose of reality.
“There are a lot of misperceptions about urban culture and hip-hop, so as a rapper I wanted to bring some truth to this from the voice of someone who knows that reality,” Al Malik explains. “I want to do the same with Islam. The people who experience this every day, unfortunately, can’t speak out for themselves, so that’s what I wanted to do.”
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