La Traviata, My Brothers and I | Dir: Yohan Manca | ★ ★ ★ ★ 

Yohan Manca’s first feature film was shot in Sète, a French fishing port and seaside resort on the Mediterranean. Beyond the expensive hotels, picturesque beaches and luxury yachts inhabited by the seasonal tourists, is a low-income housing filled with struggling families and quite a lot of crime.

This is where thirteen year old Nour (Maël Rouin Berrandou) lives with his three older brothers and his comatose mother who needs constant medical attention. Desperate to leave school and earn money, he must have already found an illegal way to get money as he is doing supervised community service at his school during the summer holiday break.

Nour sees the lives his brothers have chosen – from Hedi (Moncef Farfar) who deals drugs to Mo (Sofian Khammes) who is a gigolo for men and women at an expensive hotel, to the hot-headed Abel (Dali Benssalah) who has the responsibility of keeping the family together. Then there is opera singer Sarah (Judith Chemla) who distracts him while he is doing the community service – and opens a door to possibilities beyond what his brothers can imagine.

La Traviata, My Brothers and I screens at UWA’s Somerville Monday 20 December – Friday 24 December and Sunday 26 December. Find out more about the season at perthfestival.com.au

Lezly Herbert

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