PARIS — The name resonates deeply among French
minorities as a symbol of police violence, but it has taken 35 years for the
death of Malik Oussekine to be recounted on-screen.
اضافة اعلان
On the night of December 6, 1986, two police
officers beat to death the 22-year-old French-Algerian on the sidelines of a
student protest in
Paris.
He had not been involved in the
demonstration, and his killing became a turning point — triggering weeks of
unrest and leading to the unprecedented conviction of the officers.
While Oussekine's name has continued to
reverberate among minorities, his story has never been adapted for the screen
until now.
As if making up for lost time, two versions
are being released this month: a film, "Our Brothers", premieres at
the
Cannes Film Festival, and a Disney+ mini-series, "Oussekine", is
released worldwide on Wednesday.
"He was attacked because of the color
of his skin. He is France's Arab George Floyd," historian Pascal Blanchard
told AFP, referring to the Black man whose death at the hands of police in 2020
sparked massive international protests.
He said much of French society had allowed
Oussekine's story to be brushed under the carpet as with so much of its
troubled history with immigrant populations.
"It's not a question of whether Malik
Oussekine has been forgotten, but by who?" said Blanchard.
'Historical cancers'
France is still wrestling with the trauma of
its colonial period, particularly the bloody war of independence in
Algeria from 1954 to 1962.
Among its darkest moments was the massacre
of up to 200 Algerian protesters by police in Paris on October 17, 1961 — many
of them shot dead and their bodies were thrown into the Seine.
The events of that day went officially
unacknowledged for decades until President
Emmanuel Macron finally described
them as "inexcusable crimes" at the 60th anniversary last year —
though without apologizing.
Oussekine's death was crucial in marking the
end of total police impunity — the first time that officers were convicted for
this type of crime, according to the family's lawyer, Georges Kiejman.
It has taken until now, as the grandchildren
of the original wave of North African immigrants comes of age, for there to be
enough distance and confidence to address the past.
"For our generation, it is important to
say that these individual stories form part of the French national story. They
are not separate. These are French stories," said Faiza Guene, 36 and born
to Algerian parents, who helped write the screenplay for "Oussekine".
Its director, Antoine Chevrollier, was part
of the team behind hit spy series "The Bureau", and the lauded
political saga "Baron Noir".
"The important thing is to make this
name and this story resonate so that we never forget," he told AFP.
Chevrollier, who grew up in a small village
in the
Loire Valley, says he only became fully aware of the power of
Oussekine's name when he moved to Paris and began to hang out with people from
different backgrounds.
"I hope the series will help ease the
tensions that are unsettling the country. It is time that we in France begin to
treat these historical cancers."
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