Les Apaches

While tourists inhabit the beaches and campsites of Corsica, this fateful drama unfolds on the poor side of the island and is told by the French director Thierry de Peretti, who is best known as an actor.
After an evening out, a group of young second-generation North-African immigrants breaks into a villa where one of their fathers works as a gardener. Their first aim is to party but boasting and macho behaviour lead them to take some valuables with them. What follows is a story filled with misunderstandings and insinuations that consciously does not choose a direction but escalates slowly and tangibly.
Les Apaches, French slang for ‘hooligans’, looks beyond the sun-drenched façade of the island. It’s a story about crime, but it isn’t a crime story; De Peretti keeps the tempo too low for that. Without too much overemphasis, the film shows the gap between the affluent French with their second homes and the immigrants and original island inhabitants who have been relegated to second-class citizens. This holiday island will never be a paradise for them.