Directed by Florent-Emilio Siri, Elyas is an action thriller starring Roschdy Zem, alongside Laëtitia Eïdo and Jeanne Michel. Released in theaters on July 3, 2024, the film follows a former Special Forces soldier who has become a bodyguard. It will be available to stream on Disney+ on December 5, 2025.
A former member of the Special Forces, Elyas lives on the margins of society, marked by trauma and a constant mistrust of the world around him. Solitary and paranoid, he accepts a bodyguard assignment for 13-year-old Nour and her mother Amina, who have come from the Middle East. At first, the relationship between the ex-soldier and the teenager remains distant, each carrying their own fears and secrets.
As Nour and Elyas learn to trust each other, an armed commando targets them. Their daily life turns into an organized escape, between hideouts, tense journeys, and confrontations. Pursued by a threat whose motives remain unclear, Elyas is forced to put his fighting skills back into play, while facing his psychological wounds and the weight of the decisions he must make to protect those entrusted to him.
Co-written by Florent-Emilio Siri and Nicolas Laquerrière, the film was born out of the director's desire to return to action cinema after Nid de guêpes, Otage, and L'Ennemi intime. The project is structured around the presence of Roschdy Zem, whose physicality and interiority guided the writing of a character who is a broken but still operational soldier. Siri also drew inspiration from news stories about young girls from powerful families in the Middle East fleeing forced marriages or situations of confinement to fuel the geopolitical and intimate context of the plot.
Filming took place in Morocco and the Île-de-France region, on location and in studios, with a budget of around €12.5 million. The filmmaker claims an approach to violence influenced by Kurosawa and certain political thrillers of the 1970s, where explosions of aggression arise brutally, without graphic excess but with a strong emotional impact. Elyas's character, torn between trauma, paranoia, and protective instinct, is part of a tradition of characters tormented by doubt rather than invincible heroes.
Elyas is primarily aimed at fans of realistic action films and tense thrillers, in the tradition of bodyguard stories where psychology is as important as the fight scenes. Rated PG-12 with a warning, the film offers sequences of sustained tension, centered on the survival of a trio caught in a manhunt. The bond that develops between Elyas and Nour adds an extra emotional dimension, exploring the question of trust and the possibility of redemption for a man who thought he was permanently marginalized.
Elyas
Film | 2024
Theatrical release: July 3, 2024
On Disney+ December 5, 2025
Action, Thriller | Running time: 1h39
By Florent-Emilio Siri | Starring Roschdy Zem, Laëtitia Eïdo, Jeanne Michel
Nationality: France
Classification: Prohibited for children under 12 with warning
Combining elements of a chase movie, a portrait of a veteran in crisis, and the story of protecting a threatened teenager, Elyas is a tense action film rooted in contemporary issues. Florent-Emilio Siri's return to feature films after several years devoted to series and other genres confirms his interest in cinema where the staging of bodies, urban spaces, and violence primarily serves the journey of a character caught between the past and the present.
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