Heiners Filmseiten – Father’s Footstep (en)

Father’s Footstep (Comme ton père)

German title: Comme ton père (Wie dein Vater)
Russian title: Так, как твой отец
Original title: Comme ton père

Alternative titles:
Like Your Father / Les enfants du terrain vague / По стопам отца

Family drama – France, Israel
Production year: 2007
Movie length: 95 minutes

Director: Marco Carmel
Writer: Marco Carmel, Serge Ankri, Séverine Jacquet, Emmanuel Pinto
Cinematograph: Giora Bejach
Music: Armand Amar

Movie description:

In the early 70’s, Felix, Mireille and their sons Eric and Michel move from Israel to the Parisian working-class neighborhood of Belleville. The family has barely settled in when Felix meets Serge, a local gang leader. Serge leads Felix down the path of organized crime, until his arrest, when Felix decides to step into Serge’s shoes as the leader of the gang. The shame is too much for Mireille to bear so she tells the children their father has gone back to Israel to join the army. But tensions between rival gangs and the discovery of the truth about his father lead Michel to experiment with violence and follow his father’s footsteps. It is up to Mireille to find the strength to hold her family together and protect them from themselves.

Most of the film centers on Michel, the younger of the two brothers, and he also narrates it. It is his story, pretty much. Just at one point, the story steers towards and away from wish-fulfillment – in a parting of the ways between Michel’s father, Felix, and Serge, a crime boss, on a country lane – as though to reassure the viewer that all else is true.

Boy Actors