Elyas cranks up the action and dials down the realism

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An action thriller is something rare to see in the Alliance Française French Film Festival program and sadly Elyas disappoints, as it feels much more like Hollywood exaggerated action films than French cinema.

It stars Roschdy Zem (The Edge of the Blade, AFFFF 2024, Other People’s Children, and The Innocent both from AFFFF 2023) in the titular role of Elyas, a man with severe PTSD who reluctantly accepts the job of doing security for a rich family. He’s told that neither the child, Nour (Jeanne Michel), or the mother, Amina (Laëtitia Eïdo, The Man in the Basement, and Beautiful Minds), can ever leave the sprawling mansion’s grounds. Though of course they do go out, and discover that the people they are hiding from have tracked them down.

What follows is a ridiculous shootout at the mansion where the “bad guys” have come to take them, and Elyas single-handedly manages to kill them all. This is where reality starts to completely fall away in the film Elyas. It is further suspended when Elyas goes to save Nour, who has been kidnapped.

There were a few good moments in the film, such as the way the story made us question whether what we just saw happened or was the version playing out in Elyas’ head (security tapes at the mansion show a different story to Elyas’). However, the ridiculously exaggerated one man fighting (and winning) against the world narrative ruins the film.

Laëtitia Eïdo (The Man in the Basement, and Beautiful Minds) playing the mother Amina was a truly terrible actress – every line she delivers in the film feels forced or fake.

Elyas is dedicated to Italian cinematographer Giovanni Fiore Coltellacci who was the Director of Photography who passed after filming finished and before the film’s release.

Directed and co-written by Florent Emilio Siri, Elyas is a film you can easily take off your Alliance Française French Film Festival list. That said, if you like Hollywood blockbusters with very little sense of reality, perhaps Elyas is the film for you.

2 CROISSANTS

Matilda Marseillaise watched a screener of the film

Elyas was released in France also under the title Elyas in July 2024.

KEY INFO FOR THE ALLIANCE FRANÇAISE FILM FESTIVAL 2025

WHAT: Alliance Française French Film Festival 2025

WHERE & WHEN:

19/03 – 23/04 – ADELAIDE
06/03 – 08/04 – BRISBANE
06/03 – 02/04 – BALLARAT, VIC
08/03 – 02/04 – BALLINA, NSW
11/03 – 13/03 – BENDIGO, VIC
07/03 – 02/04 – BYRON BAY, NSW
06/03 – 09/04 – CANBERRA
25/03 – 15/04 – GOLD COAST
03/04 – 13/04 – HOBART
05/03 – 09/04 – MELBOURNE
03/04 – 06/04 – MOUNT GAMBIER, SA
13/03 – 16/04 – PERTH
26/03 – 31/03 – RENMARK, SA
04/03 – 09/04 – SYDNEY
02/04 – 09/04 – VICTOR HARBOR, SA
04/03 – 06/04 – PARRAMATTA, NSW
10/04 – 13/04 – BUNBURY, WA
12/04 – 21/04 – WARRAWONG, NSW