Les pires

When a film crew arrives at the Picasso housing estate in Boulogne-sur-Mer, in northern France, the neighborhood is suddenly transformed into a movie set. During an open casting call, the director deliberately looks for teenagers whose lives reflect the rough realities of the area: school dropouts, foster children, and restless outsiders. From hundreds of applicants, four young locals — Lily, Ryan, Maylis and Jessy — are chosen to play roles in the film. The selection quickly becomes the subject of gossip and concern among residents. Why pick the kids everyone considers “the worst”? As the shoot progresses, the line between fiction and reality begins to blur. The teenagers discover both the excitement and the pressure of being watched, while the adults behind the camera struggle with a growing ethical dilemma: does the project give these young people a voice — or does it risk exploiting their lives for authenticity? Balancing humor, tenderness and social observation, LES PIRES explores the complex relationship between cinema and reality, questioning who has the right to tell whose story. Through the lives of its young protagonists, the film reveals the fragile hopes and contradictions of growing up in a marginalized community. THE WORST ONES (Les Pires) premiered at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Un Certain Regard Award, the top prize of that section and a major recognition for the directors’ feature debut.