Annual Top Films Lists

Top 200 Most Anticipated Foreign Films of 2023: #109. Ladj Ly’s Les Indésirables

Published on January 12, 2023

Les Indésirables

One of the last major projects to move into production in ’22 and on this list is Ladj Ly‘s sophomore film with the nifty sounding and complimentary title. Ly won Jury Prize Les Misérables and he reteams with certain elements from that film with Les Indésirables. Starring Anta Diaw and Alexis Manenti, Ly penned (alongside Giordano Gederlini) another drama where the backdrop is an important character. Production took place in December and will end next month. Produced by SRAB Films’ Toufik Ayadi and Christophe Barral (Saint Omer), this is proposed as a chronicle the young woman’s emancipation, and explores the inhabitants feeling threatened by gentrification plans.

Gist: This charts the journey of a fierce young woman, Habi (Anta Diaw), and a budding new mayor, Pierre (Manenti), crossing paths in an underprivileged suburb on the outskirts of Paris. Habi, a native of the suburb who is involved in social orgs helping locals, becomes a political figure. Pierre, meanwhile, is a former doctor who takes the city’s reins after the mayor’s death and sets off to follow his agenda.

Release Date/Prediction: We believe that this will be heading to buzzy premiere in Venice in ’23 instead of Cannes in ’24.

Eric Lavallée

Eric Lavallée is the founder, CEO, editor-in-chief, film journalist and critic at IONCINEMA.com (founded in 2000). Eric is a regular at Sundance, Cannes and TIFF. He has a BFA in Film Studies at the Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema. In 2013 he served as a Narrative Competition Jury Member at the SXSW Film Festival. He was an associate producer on Mark Jackson's This Teacher (2018 LA Film Festival, 2018 BFI London). In 2022 he served as a New Flesh Comp for Best First Feature at the 2022 Fantasia Intl. Film Festival. Current top films for 2022 include Tár (Todd Field), All That Breathes (Shaunak Sen), Aftersun (Charlotte Wells).