Le Thé au harem d’Archimède (1985) - film review

Two adolescent young men, Pat and Madjid, fail to find employment after leaving school and drift into a life of petty crime, stealing and pimping when the mood takes them.  Both live on a run down housing estate in Paris and both dream of a better life, but neither is able to break free of their current situation.

This debut film by Mehdi Charef, based on his semi-autobiographical novel, was well-received by the critics when it was first released, meriting a special mention at Cannes and winning the Jean Vigo prize that year.   The structure of the film is somewhat muddled and disorientating, and its lack of focus and direction make it hard for the audience to become engaged.  That said, the film offers a credible – often poignant – depiction of social exclusion and delinquency from the perspective of two disillusioned teenagers.  The film’s main theme is how these two young men, coming from different racial groupings (one is white, the other Arab), discover an unlikely solidarity through their shared experiences of poverty and rejection.

© James Travers 2002

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