Le Gang des Bois du Temple

Three men are taking a walk between the apartment blocks of a suburban housing estate, feeding pigeons. They belong to a gang of small-time crooks who pulled off a major coup during the armed robbery of a Saudi Arabian prince’s car. Their conversation revolves around acquiring a bionic prosthetic hand, a long-cherished dream that the stolen money can make a reality. They don’t yet know that they are being pursued. The tranquillity of the scene stands in stark contrast to the later shootout with cold-blooded killers and establishes a space beyond the genre conventions of the classic gangster film – as does the stunning performance of a chanson by Breton singer Annkrist at a funeral service at the beginning of the film. The prince’s ecstatic dance to raï music in a nightclub, during which his bodyguard fails to notice that he’s being watched, also forms part of this poetics of digression. At the end, when a neighbour who is friends with the gang looks out from his balcony at children and pigeons playing, while the verticals of the banlieue architecture glow in the autumn light, everything is peaceful again. (Birgit Kohler)

Production Rabah Ameur-Zaïmeche. Production company Sarrazink Productions (Montreuil, France). Director Rabah Ameur-Zaïmeche. Screenplay Rabah Ameur-Zaïmeche. Cinematography Pierre-Hubert Martin. Editing Grégoire Pontecaille. Music Annkrist, Sofiane Saïdi. Sound design Nikolas Javelle. Sound Bruno Auzet. Production design Mohamed Aroussi. Costumes Julia Fouroux. Make-up Marine Soulie. Production manager Sarah Sobol. Executive producer Rabah Ameur-Zaïmeche. With Régis Laroche, Philippe Petit, Marie Loustalot, Kenji Meunier, Salim Ameur-Zaïmeche, Kamel Mezdour, Nassim Zazoui, Lucius Barre, Mohamed Aroussi, Slimane Dazi.

World sales REASON8 Films

Rabah Ameur-Zaïmeche, born in Beni-Zid, Algeria in 1966, he studied sociology in France. In 1999 he founded his own film production company Sarrazink Productions. In 2001 he made his first feature film, WESH WESH, QU'EST-CE QUI SE PASSE? (Berlinale Forum 2002. HISTOIRE DE JUDAS was shown at the Berlinale Forum in 2015.

Films: 2001: Wesh wesh, qu’est-ce qui se passe? / Wesh Wesh, What's Going on? (83 min.). 2006: Bled Number One / Back Home (100 min.). 2008: Dernier maquis / Adhen (93 min.). 2012: Les chants de Mandrin / Smuggler's Songs (97 min.). 2015: Histoire de Judas / The Story of Judas (99 min.). 2019: Terminal Sud / Headed South (96 min.). 2022: Le Gang des Bois du Temple / The Temple Woods Gang.

Bonus Material