When he finds out that his mother (a brazen Isabelle Adjani) has gambled away the savings needed to close the deal, he’s forced to lead a Benidorm drugs run for Putin, the new drug lord on the block. Karim Leklou stars as Farès, a schlubby small-time dealer looking to go straight by acquiring the Mr Freeze ice-pops franchise in Morocco. But there is something faintly political in his decision to make what former French president Nicolas Sarkozy called la racaille (“scum”)– the outsiders, chancers and artful dodgers from the country’s immigrant underclass – so unrepentantly the heroes of his second film, a brash and jubilant Guy Ritchie-style crime caper. R omain Gavras is no political firebrand like his father, Costa-Gavras.
