Chad Chenouga

Sabri Lahlali, the assistant principal of a local high school, is ready to do anything to ensure that his son, who is about to take his high school diploma, has the ideal academic record. But he doesn't know how far his enterprise will take him.

Sabri Lahlali, the assistant principal of a local high school, is ready to do anything to ensure that his son, who is about to take his high school diploma, has the ideal academic record. But he doesn't know how far his enterprise will take him.

Michel is an eternal kid who dreams only of motorcycles and hangs out with his big son Léo and his friends. At fifty, he has to deal with the baby he just had with his ex, and fights not to make the same mistakes and be a good guy.

Karim, 30, drives every night. One day at dawn, he drives his last client - a foreign artist, the same age than him. Karim feels irresistibly attracted towards this young man. What he feels will start questioning who he thought he was.

Nassim, a 16-year-old boy, is placed with a family in the suburbs following the death of his drug addict mother. But he refuses to integrate into the social setting that surrounds him. He invents another life for himself, similar to that of his mates at the big Parisian high school he goes to. There’s no reason for that to change. His two lives, his home life and his school life, must be kept separate at all costs.

Nassim, a 16-year-old boy, is placed with a family in the suburbs following the death of his drug addict mother. But he refuses to integrate into the social setting that surrounds him. He invents another life for himself, similar to that of his mates at the big Parisian high school he goes to. There’s no reason for that to change. His two lives, his home life and his school life, must be kept separate at all costs.

A 44 year old guy gets out of jail and wants to become an actor.

Antoine Sforza, a thirty-year-old young man, left his village ten years before in order to start a new life in the big city, but now that his father, a traveling grocer, is in hospital after a stroke, he more or less reluctantly accepts to come back to replace him in his daily rounds.

17, rue Bleue is an autobiographical drama about an Algerian immigrant's self-destruction in Paris. In it, director Chad Chenouga recounts how his mother, Adda, came to France as an illegal alien, hoping to escape the haunting secrets of her native land, and seeking a new life of wealth. When Adda falls in love with her employer, a wealthy Parisian named Merlin, she believes her fortune is within reach. But troubles begin when Merlin suddenly dies, leaving behind no clear will. Adda, believing in the Algerian superstition that a beauty mark on her son's hand signifies great wealth to come, throws herself into a losing court battle to win Merlin's estate. As legal defeats mount up, Adda turns to drugs, driving away friends and family members, until she's left with only her son, Chad. When he turns 16, his mother dies from her many years of drug abuse.

Yakine, bright student with algerian origins, wears the hijab. Her family and her school want to understand but she refuses to talk about it.

After raising her daughter, one would think that Julie's life was rather full. However, she recently got an offer from the French consul to a mission in Pondicherry, India to teach her skills to Indians. She can only do this if she gets her high-school diploma, something she neglected to do earlier. The idea of this new post motivates her to rectify her youthful omission, and she goes back to school in Montparnasse. Just before classes are to start, her current boyfriend's condescending ways prove too much for her, and she breaks up with him, reacting to that by getting drunk. Thus, when she has to take the subway to school on the first day, being unfamiliar with the route and somewhat the worse for wear, she gets lost. Fortunately, she meets an elderly man, a retired musician for the Paris Opera, who is headed for the very same destination. The two form a relationship of mutual encouragement and support.

A provocative, seemingly absurd patchwork movie which sends a worthwhile message about hope against all odds, love, children and human understanding. Schoolgirl Victorine has an insane mother and an alcoholic father who can never find his way home in their maze of slum apartment blocks. Aggressive, sexually threatening boys of all ages are everywhere, and while the teacher eventually relents to a gang of adolescent rapists, Victorine gives herself to a rowdy gang of older layabouts, eventually winning the heart of burglar Paul.