Douce France ‘Sweet France’ (Mogniss H. Abdallah & Ken Fero, 1993)

All students and staff welcome

• Winner Mentione Speciale Festival Images du Monde Arabe and the Milano Province Prize 5th Festival of African Cinema
• With an introduction by director Dr Ken Fero (Migrant Media, Regent’s University) and Dr Adam Elliott-Cooper (UKBLM, QMUL)

In France the control, and exploitation, of immigrants is central to the policies of all political parties and although unemployment is a national problem, people despise the young unemployed immigrants. Social discrimination mixes up with racism and brings hell to the housing estates. Fights take place between the police and the youth. Regularly suburbs across France explode into uprisings when young immigrants are killed by the police.

 

Since the late 70's, young immigrants have organised to fight back, especially the young beur (a slang word for Arab) and the emerging militant "beur movement" achieved some important successes in the early 1980's. This documentary explores this movement by following some of the young people who have been active throughout the last decade, focusing on their lives and activities today. Their parents also speak about their own experience of racism in French society, such as the massacre of over 200 Algerians by police in Paris in October 1961. This combination of the militancy of the youth and the experience of the older generation is now firmly on the political agenda and is challenging the French model of the Republic; "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity" - for whom?

All QMUL students and staff are welcome to join the screening. 

The film is being screened as an introduction to the work of the People’s Tribunal, ahead of The People’s Tribunal on Police Killings - European Action, which is being held at QMUL on 17th and 18th October 2026. 

At the tribunal, the families of those killed by the police in many European countries will gather for the first time in an unprecedented way to unify radical struggles for justice. 

The first day of the tribunal is open to the public and students and staff of QMUL are encouraged to attend. You can find out more and register here, and follow @thepeoplestribunal.