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Systemic Complicity: Police Brutality And National Identity In Ladj Ly's Les Misérables, Lucia Hainline

Senior Theses and Projects

Inspired by his youth in the Parisian suburb of Montfermeil, Ladj Ly’s first feature film explores the presence of the police in the banlieue from the point of view of a special crime unit. Released in 2019, after the murder of Adama Traoré and increased debate on police surveillance, Les Misérables portrays the contemporary reality of life in the suburbs through a shocking act of police brutality caught on camera and the events that follow for the policemen. This thesis explores the systems of the banlieue and their representation in the film and discusses how the shortfalls of the French …