Published by
Al-Araby
Al-Araby
The world premiere of After the Fire at the 2023 Toronto Film Festival couldn’t be more timely. Just over two months ago, on 27 June 2023, 17-year-old Nahel Merzouk was killed by a police officer and now, in Mehdi Fikri’s powerful feature debut, similar politics of French police brutality play out. Yet this is a story grounded in the emotional ordeal of those left behind as they fight for justice in the face of corrupt bureaucracy. France is certainly no stranger to the subject of revolution, both in life and art and in recent years, filmmakers have served up the likes ofAthena and Les Misérab…