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Kery James, one of the finest voices in French rap, returned to this contentious subject of police violence on stage, in a forceful discussion between a judge and a lawyer.
In “A Huis Clos,” Soulaymaan Traore, a lawyer (Kery James), kidnaps a judge, Nicolas (Jérôme Kircher), accusing him of influencing the jury in the acquittal of a police officer who shot his brother Demba in the back.
Kery James continues his long-standing battle against police brutality in his music, theater, and film work.
Ulysse Boulestin, a drama teacher in Nanterre, appreciated the “union between two characters who had nothing to understand each other.
“For the poetry of rap to arrive on a theatre stage in such a present and gripping way, and for it to take a whole room with it, which is not necessarily accustomed to the theatre at first, where it whispers a little, where it talks and at the end everyone is gripped by the same magnitude and everyone stands up with so much emotion, applauding this text at the end, which is magnificent, and this moment of union between these two characters who had nothing to understand each other… It’s still hair-raising!”
Dialogue alone won’t change the situation, but it’s the first step”, Kery told his audience in Nantes.
Another variation on the rapper’s message: his second film, “Banlieusards 2”, released at the end of September on Netflix, once again features Soulaymaan, the student lawyer, alongside his brothers, Demba and Noumouké. Kery James is the actor, scriptwriter and co-director of this sequel.
An album is also planned for the end of the year.
