The French Democracy

The French Democracy is a short 2005 French political film made by Alex Chan using computer animation from Lionhead Studios 2005 business simulation game The Movies. The plot centers on three Moroccan men who turn to rioting after facing different forms of discrimination. Chan, a French native of Chinese descent, created the film to convey his view that racism caused the riots of the 2005 civil unrest in France. Although Chan was restricted by shortcomings and technical limitations in The Movies, he finished the film after four days of production.

The French Democracy begins with a reenactment of the reallifeOctober 2005 event that triggered riots in France the electrocution of two teenagers, Zyed Benna and Bouna Traor. In the film, the youths attempt to hide from police in a building near an electric power station. In a televised speech, the Minister of the Interior vows to increase efforts to fight crime. Three fictional Moroccan men discuss the recent events and disagree with means used by the police, and feel that blacks are unfairly targeted. They face different forms of discrimination overnight detention for lack of a passport during an identity check, refusal of employment and housing rental, and police brutality. Angered, the three riot using Molotov cocktails. A white family watches television coverage of the chaos, and the film ends with a dedication to Benna and Traor, lamenting the loss of the French ideals of freedom, equality, and fraternity.Alex Chan,years old at the time of the civil unrest, was a Frenchborn freelance industrial designer whose parents were Chinese immigrants from Hong Kong. Although Chan was successful professionally, he felt that there was racial and cultural discrimination in France, based on his own previous attempts to find housing and violence directed towards him. He lived in SeineSaintDenis, a suburb of Paris, near housing projects where rioting had caused the destruction of cars owned by acquaintances. In the aftermath of the unrest, Chan was dissatisfied, stating that the media, especially in the United States, ... linked what was happening, the riots, to terrorism and put the blame on the Muslim community. Chan wanted instead to depict more human rioters who turned to violence in response to racism. According to Chan, the title The French Democracy is meant to be ironic, in that the youths express themselves by rioting rather than through the political system. He elaborated ........

Source: Wikipedia