Divertimento

Zahia (Oulaya Amamra) and Fettouma Ziouani (Lina El Arabi) are 17 years old. Lulled since their earliest childhood by classical symphonic music thanks to music-loving and art-savvy parents, they have completed all music theory classes and passed multiple competitions. Today in their final year, they are joining the prestigious Lycée Racine, a school in the 8th arrondissement that offers students the possibility to continue studying music at the same time as a traditional school curriculum. Gifted, passionate, and ambitious, the twins work hard to achieve their goals: Zahia plays the viola, but above all wants to become a conductor. Fettouma aims for a career as a cellist. Of Algerian origin, raised in the Paris suburbs, the two sisters must face ordinary racism, prejudices, and preconceptions: from their young fellow students, the teaching staff, but also from academy directors who seem to reproach them for being too gifted and not well-born enough to enter the ultra-elitist world of classical music. The film focuses a little more on Zahia's journey, exceptional when you know that in the world, only 4% of conductors are women. “When you come from where I come from, you are automatically oriented towards a career as a hairdresser. Wanting to conduct an orchestra was as crazy as aspiring to be a cosmonaut or President of the Republic,” Zahia Ziouni will say in a book that narrates her journey. It is a bit of all this that Divertimento puts into images: how, at 17, through talent, audacity, and charisma, the young woman manages to climb all the steps that will lead her to a maestro career. An important step will be her meeting with the very controversial Sergiu Celibidache (played in the film by Niels Arestrup) whose conducting class she will follow, before creating her own ensemble, the Divertimento orchestra, a true vector of music as an instrument of living together. The film tells the story of a difficult journey but one that succeeds through hard work, optimism, and nerve. Zahia and Fettouma are not spared, but their talent, their strength of character, and above all the love of their loved ones allow them to get back up when they fall, to move past humiliations, and to move forward in the life they have chosen. Divertimento is a film that gives you a boost because it is full of optimism. It makes you want to know more about the great composers, to discover the world of classical music (the soundtrack includes some famous pieces). Above all, it creates hope and makes us fantasize about a slightly more egalitarian world. +++ Screening-meeting organized with and for the Service Intergénérationnel of the Commune de Forest, as part of Vivr'Ensemble au Cinéma. +++ De Marie-Castille Mention-Schaar Avec Oulaya Amamra and Fettouma Ziouani France | 2023 | 1h55 | VO ST FR | From 12 years old SCHEDULE: Thursday, June 4 at 2:00 PM RATES: A la carte session 5.5€ Art.27: 1.25€