Roschdy Zem Movies

Euro screen legends Gérard Depardieu and Daniel Auteuil star, respectively, as French cops Denis Klein and Leo Vrinks, in Olivier Marchal's tough-as-steel policier 36 Quai des Orfevres. The story unravels at the titular Parisian police headquarters, where Klein (who heads up the department's anti-crime unit) and Vrinks (who manages the "search and action squad") go head-to-head -- competing with one another not only to succeed their boss, but to be the first to solve an ongoing series of security-van robberies. Ultimately, the men resort to sabotaging one another, and thus set the stage for an ongoing series of twists, turns, reversals, and betrayals. Valeria Golino and Catherine Marchal co-star; Olivier Marchal co-authored the script with Dominique Loiseau, Julien Rappeneau, and Franck Mancuso. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide

Roschdy Zem and Cecile de France star as a Muslim Arab and a Jewish woman who find their four-year love affair put to the ultimate test in director/co-writer Zem's 21st Century take on Guess Who's Coming to Dinner? Ishmael (Zem) is a music instructor at a Paris conservatory. His widowed mother still lives in the housing project in which her son was raised, and his Jewish best friend is the proprietor of a popular independent record store. Clara (France) is a physical therapist who specializes in helping motor-impaired children and whose retired parents live with her single sister in the family's comfortable suburban home. Secular thirty-somethings who never put much credence in adhering to their respective faiths, Ishmael and Clara have remained together for four fun-filled years without incidence. When Clara discovers that she has become pregnant with Ishmael's child, however, the couple's carefree romance threatens to grow complicated as their ethnic backgrounds bleed into the forefront of their consciences and they struggle with how to reveal the development to their traditional-minded parents. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

The comedy Chouchou has a cross-dressing gay immigrant as a main character. Chouchou (Gad Elmaleh) arrives illegally in Paris, where he finds a home thanks to a pair of kindly priests. He eventually finds work with a parishioner who allows him to clean her house while dressed in women's clothing. Soon Chouchou is working at night at a local club where he falls for Stainslas (Alain Chabat), who introduces Chouchou to his parents. Chouchou's illegal residency may be the hurdle that the couple cannot clear on their way to happiness. The film was adapted from a one-man play originally written and performed by Elmaleh. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide

This tense psychological drama from France concerns Antoine Lahoud (Roschdy Zem), a forty-year-old attorney who believes himself destined for more ambitious pursuits than the meaningless, petty criminal cases he finds himself pursuing. Circumstances change when Antoine receives an offer from the venerable attorney Henry Marsac (Jean-Philippe Ecoffey) to help him defend wicked, evil criminal clients; Antoine agrees but soon learns that the assignments come with messy strings attached. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide

Alice (Sandrine Kiberlain) is a young woman working in a fish cannery in Boulogne-sur-Mer, who feels that her life has come to a dead end. When she is laid off from her job, she decides to pull up stakes, leaving her boyfriend behind and heading to Lyon. While having a drink at a hotel bar, she meets construction worker Bruno (Arnaud Giovaninetti). Like Alice, Bruno feels alone and unhappy with life, and as the two strike up a conversation, each senses that they've found a kindred spirit, and a tentative romance begins to emerge. Sandrine Kiberlain's performance earned her a Cesar Award (the French Oscar) as Most Promising Young Actress of 1996. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Letitia Masson wrote and directed this tale told in flashbacks as a detective tracks a young woman. After France Robert (Sandrine Kiberlain) steals cash and then leaves Marseilles nightclub owner Pierre (Jean-Francois Stevenin) at the altar, he still yearns for her, so he puts private investigator Luigi Primo (Sergio Castellitto) on her trail. Luigi, who married a French lawyer (Mireille Perier) but is now divorced, sends regular progress bulletins on tape. He begins the quest by talking to France's small-town parents and former boyfriend, traveling about in Paris, Grenoble, and Marseilles as he assembles the jigsaw of her past life. Shown in the Certain Regard section at the 1998 Cannes Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide

Recalling such prior efforts as Maurice Pialat's 1984 Police and Bob Swaim's 1982 La Balance, Gallic director Olivier van Hoofstadt's relentlessly tense and violent action thriller Go Fast plunges into the violent and dangerous world of French metropolitan police. Roschdy Zem stars as Marek, a cop involved in a risky sting operation against a drug trafficking ring. In the process, his best friend and partner dies, which prompts his transfer to an undercover division of the force. He soon learns that his new mission will involve infiltrating a gang involved in smuggling cannabis from southern Spain to small-town France. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide

An Algeria born and raised French citizen (known as a pied noir) finds himself forced to choose between his beloved but still war-torn homeland and a new life in Paris after he leaves his olive farm and goes to France for a cataract operation. Georges Montero initially only plans to spend a short time in France to heal and to visit family members who fled during Algeria's war of independence in the early '60s. All those he visits, including an old flame, are still embittered about the war and are deeply concerned about the mass murder of Algeria's artists and intellectuals by Islamic fundamentalists. It is Belka, one of Georges's old friends, who has recently relocated to Paris, who engineers a scheme to keep Georges, a staunch colonialist who does not seem concerned by the bloody tumult back home, in France. While trying to decide what to do, Georges becomes friends with his eye surgeon Tarek, himself an Algerian transplant. In arguing their different positions on the state of their homeland, each makes surprising self-discoveries about just how much Algeria's recent history of unrest has affected them. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Two very violent men have conspired to steal a valuable solid gold image of an African deity from the museum in Mali where it is being kept. They had it smuggled out with a number of well-made but very cheap replicas. The plan was to give each of the replicas to the members of a new squash club as a diversion, and profit from the original (worth $1 million) themselves. There is a slip-up, however, and the real statue goes to one of the players. The deliveryman now has to track down all the statues, and in this antic caper comedy, that's easier said than done. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

A hangdog, middle-aged painter falls in love with a tender young college student after he leaves his philandering wife and his children in this romantic French drama. To console himself, the fundamentally bohemian Phillippe finds comfort in the arms of various prostitutes, especially Valeria. It is while searching for her that he meets lovely Justine, the student. Sparks fly and they move into together. Things go well until Phillippe begins pining for his children. This makes insecure Justine terribly jealous and tumult erupts until the aging artist is able to discover the true source of his anxieties. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

A young, inexperienced detective is inducted into an elite Paris plainclothes unit in Le Petit Lieutenant, directed by Xavier Beauvois (Don't Forget You're Going to Die). Antoine (Jalil Lespert or Human Resources) is as gung-ho as they come, and eager to learn everything he needs to know to be a good cop, although he misses his wife (Bérangère Allaux), a schoolteacher who stayed behind in the country when Antoine took his new job. Antoine socializes with his new comrades, who seem to drink an awful lot, with the exception of the unit commander, Caroline (Nathalie Baye), an alcoholic who has just returned from a long stint on desk duty. The other experienced detectives that Antoine looks up to are the cynical Louis (Antoine Chappey), and the stalwart Solo (Roschdy Zem), who in addition to the rigors of the job faces bigotry due to his Moroccan origin. When a Polish immigrant is found murdered in a canal near the station, the unit begins a methodical investigation, eventually learning that the victim was last seen with a couple of Russians. When a second victim is rescued from the waters of the canal a few days later, the case takes on a new urgency. As Antoine tries to fit in and learn on the job, Caroline struggles with her addiction and forms an almost maternal bond with the rookie. Le Petit Lieutenant also features Jacques Perrin, and was shown by the Film Society of Lincoln Center as part of their 2006 Rendez-Vous with French Cinema. ~ Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide

A man goes on a pilgrimage in search of his heritage -- only this time it's an African coming to America in this offbeat drama. Alloune (Sotigui Kouyate) is an elderly man who works at a museum in his native Senegal that is devoted to documenting the history of the slave trade in Africa. Many people come to the museum hoping to learn about their past, and Alloune is equally curious about his own heritage, and his research into his family tree suggests that he had several relatives who were kidnapped and sold to slave traders working out of South Carolina. Alloune decides to visit America to learn more about his kin, and he uncovers documents suggesting his relatives were renamed Robinson by their masters in the U.S. Alloune's research dictates a trip to New York City, so he pays a visit to Hassan (Karim Koussein Traore), a nephew who lives in Harlem and drives a cab. Hassan and his girlfriend Biram (Adja Diarra) let Alloune stay with them in their tiny flat, and while in the neighborhood, Alloune makes the acquaintance of Ida Robinson (Sharon Hope), a sharp-tongued woman who owns a corner store. Alloune believes Ida may be one of his relatives, but he isn't certain, and while he tries to find out for certain, he convinces her to give him a job -- never explaining that he thinks their family trees may be linked. Little Senegal was shown in competition at the 2001 Berlin Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide