Wild Side
Screening on Film
Directed by Sébastien Lifshitz.
With Stéphanie Michelini, Edouard Nikitine, Yasmine Belmadi.
France, 2004, 35mm, color, 95 min.
French with English subtitles.
With Stéphanie Michelini, Edouard Nikitine, Yasmine Belmadi.
France, 2004, 35mm, color, 95 min.
French with English subtitles.
Stépahnie (Michelini), a transsexual prostitute, lives life on the edge, pursuing tricks in Parisian discotheques, parks and hotel rooms. Accompanying her through many of these escapades is Jamel (Belmadi), a North African hustler who welcomes the nightlife with Stéphanie as a means of escape from his dreary days in a housing project. When Stéphanie meets Mikael (Nikitine), an illegal Russian immigrant, they establish an unconventional union with Jamel that fulfills their needs for emotional comfort. Director Sébastien Lifshitz created a stir at this year's Berlin Film Festival with a work that challenges the notion of family values with Fassbinder-esque defiance.