French comedy dismantles clichés about what it means to be black in France

In "Tout simplement noir" (Simply Black), French rapper and amateur filmmaker Jean-Pascal Zadi has pulled in a host of big names from France’s “visible minorities” to challenge clichés around black identity and community politics.

Poster for "Tout simplement noir". J.P Zida said he hesitated over whether or not to smile for fear of playing into the cliché of the jolly black African. © Gaumont

The film, co-directed with photographer John Wax, hit French cinemas on Wednesday and has already won over the critics.

Film critic Philippe Rouyer took to Twitter to praise "a comedy that dares to take apart all the clichés about racism while pretending to give in to them", calling it "subtle, well filmed and funny".

#ToutSimplementNoir de et avec Jean-Pascal Zadi est la bonne surprise de ce début d’été. Une comédie qui ose démonter tous les clichés du racisme en feignant d’y succomber. C’est subtil, bien filmé et très drôle, avec un casting impressionnant de stars qui moquent leur image. pic.twitter.com/aqvTOX92R8

— Philippe Rouyer (@philippe_rouyer) July 8, 2020

The “mockumentary” follows Jean-Pascal Zadi (J.P.), a failed actor turned activist who sets out to get black men in France to "defend their dignity" by joining his protest march.

He tries to get support from a range of influential black figures in the French entertainment industry, but gradually realises federating such a broad bunch isn’t so easy.

“The starting point of the project is that I realised we knew a lot about American black identity, but not that much about French black identity,” Zadi told AFP. “I wanted to question what communautarisme (separatism along racial or religious lines) is, what it means to be black and French, to be French today.”

What makes you black?

In his zest to rally people to his cause, J.P. continually trips up. He gets thrown out of a “Brigade against Negrophobia” meeting for not knowing the date of Haiti’s independence.

In a discussion about what makes someone "black" he insists you need to have curly hair and excludes footballer Vikash Dhorasoo from the march because he doesn't.

When Zadi meets journalist Kareen Guiock at a party he insists on calling her a “black journalist”. She politely corrects him, saying she’s simply a journalist, but he just doesn’t get it.

Journalist Kareen Guiock struggles to get J.P. to understand she's simply a journalist, not a black journalist. © Gaumont

“He’s a complex and ambivalent character,” Zadi told RFI. “On the one hand he is frank: he says what you’re not meant to say and gets slapped in the face for it. But there’s also an arrogant, militant side to him when he says: 'I’m black, I’m fighting for a real cause.'"

Nuanced characters

Zadi sought to show the complexity of black identity through a star-studded cast including comedians Fary and Claudia Tagbo, singers JoeyStarr and Soprano, actor Omar Sy, directors Lucien Jean-Baptiste and Fabrice Eboué...

They all play their own roles in the film, exaggerated for comic effect.

The term "black" hardly means anything, Zadi told AFP: “I’m black, Fabrice Eboué is black, Lucien Jean-Baptiste is black, but we have nothing in common. We don’t live with one another as black people, but as human beings.”

In its exploration of the complexities of identity, the film takes liberties which would be hard to pull off were the cast not so racially-diverse.

In one particularly memorable scene, Lucien-Jean Baptiste (from French overseas territory Martinique) and Fabrice Eboué (whose father is Cameroonian) have a slanging match. They accuse one another of making racist films that pamper to white "colonial" audiences.

Baptiste storms out the restaurant, only to return bare-chested carrying a machete and shouting in Creole.

“Once we’d kicked off the film with the scene where I tell comedian Claudia Tagbo she’s got “big thighs” and use a strong African accent, the floodgates were open and we could get everything through,” Zadi told RFI.

“But it was important to use the comic situations, the absurdity and the awkwardness to get across the message: ‘What does it mean to be French today, what can we say about ourselves?’”

J.P as self-styled Marianne, symbol of the French Republic © GAUMONT - C8 FILMS

White gaze/black gaze

Anti-racist activist and journalist Rokhaya Diallo said she was struck by the amount of liberty Zadi took in the film.

“Jean-Pascal Zadi managed to have his own perspective,” she told Le Parisien. “It’s rare in cinema that black people tell their own story.

“Just like there’s a male gaze, there’s a white gaze in cinema.

"In most films, the way people from minorities act is conditioned by the way white characters look at them,” she continued. “But in Tout simplement noir, Zadi freed himself of this white gaze.”

J.P launches his appeal for black men in France to join together and march © Gaumont

Timely release

The film was scheduled for release in April but was delayed when the Covid-19 epidemic forced cinemas to close for more than two months.

Since then, the death of George Floyd has fuelled anti-racism protests in France and rekindled anger over the death of Adama Traoré, allegedly at the hands of the police.

Zadi and co-director John Wax could not have known the question of black identity would become so important but there's little doubt the film's release is timely.

“At the very beginning of lockdown we decided we’d release the film on 8 July and then there was the tragic death of George Floyd,” Zadi told RFI. “It’s clear the black question is a burning issue in France.”

That may, or may not, help the film to become this summer's box office hit.

People have already taken to social media in big numbers to denounce the film and anticipate that “if you don’t like it, they’ll say you’re racist”.