After the vibrant Shéhérazade, which won 3 Césars on its release, Jean-Bernard Marlin unveils his new film, Salem. A plunge into the tough neighborhoods of Marseilles, the scene of two rival gangs where the law of retaliation prevails over the laws of the Republic. While we might have expected another documented drama from the French director, he injects a welcome dose of the fantastic andesoteric, taking the film to new horizons.
Set in a working-class Marseille neighborhood plagued by gang violence, the film explores themes of filiation, guilt and salvation through the prism of unexpected magical realism.
Salem will be available on Netflix from August 29, 2025.
Synopsis: Djibril, 14, lives in the Sauterelles district of Marseille. When he learns that Camilla, a young girl from the rival Grillons neighborhood, is expecting his child, he fears that the relationship will inflame tensions between the clans. But something tragic happens to upset his daily life: the murder of his friend before his very eyes triggers a series of strange visions. Convinced that a curse is befalling those around him, Djibril clings to his unborn daughter, Ali, whom he believes is the only hope of saving their world.
Djibril(Dalil Abdourahim) is a young Comorian from Les Sauterelles, a neighborhood in Marseille. He is in love with Camilla(Maryssa Bakoum), a gypsy from the rival Grillons neighborhood. When she tells him she's pregnant, Djibril asks her to have an abortion to avoid starting a clan war. Is love - even at the age of 14 - stronger than social injunctions and the rules established by the patriarchy of big brothers?
Although Salem seems to start out as a modern rewrite of the Shakespearean drama Romeo and Juliet - with the affrication as verse - Jean-Bernard Marlin quickly loses interest in this impossible teenage romance - a theme already explored in his previous film - in favor of a taut action film with far greater richness and genuine magical fantasy.
The murder of one of Djibril's friends before his very eyes will set the two towns ablaze. Under the sweltering sun, the weight of guilt. Traumatized, Djibril gradually sinks into madness and begins to have daydreams, marvelously captured in hallucinatory visions set to bewitching ethereal music. He is convinced that a curse has befallen the neighborhood and decides to keep his child at all costs. For him, only his daughter Ali(Wallen El Gharbaoui) can save them from the chaos.
Between two confrontations (and a rather clumsy allegory of cockfighting), Salem offers some real moments of tension in this maze of decrepit slabs - including a shootout scene in a caravan worthy of a Western - but it's above all the character of Djibril, ultimately rather inglorious, who crystallizes all the attention. While it's true that he cures the death he sows, we, like Ali, are skeptical about his prophetic visions. Are we really to believe that cicadas and bats will descend on Marseille, like so many wounds to be healed? That's the mystery of the film.
Between religion (in the messianic figure of Ali) and occultism (decidedly fashionable in the suburbs at the moment), Jean-Bernard Marlin once again attempts to pinpoint the birth of social violence in the Marseilles underworld, and the quest for redemption. But this time, without romanticism or naturalism - quite the contrary.
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