Omar Killed Me
Actor-turned-director Roschdy Zem’s Omar Killed Me tells a story of racism, politics, and injustice with the clarity of a documentary and the pacing of a thriller. When a rich widow was murdered in the south of France 20 years ago, her Moroccan gardener was convicted and jailed with no evidence; it took a committed journalist to try to unravel the rush to judgment that laid bare the racism that was hidden in the French justice system.
In the summer of 1991, a wealthy widow was beaten and stabbed to death at a beautiful villa in the south of France. Omar Raddad, the woman’s Moroccan gardener, became the prime suspect because of one bizarre clue: the words “Omar m’a tuer”—a grammatically incorrect phrase that roughly translates as “Omar has kill me”—written in the victim’s blood. Despite gaps in the investigation and no forensic evidence, Raddad was convicted and sent to prison for 18 years. Only Pierre-Emmanuel Vaugrenard, a journalist, believed in his innocence and went to work to prove it. Director Roschdy Zem, who has turned from acting (with Bouajila in Days of Glory) to directing, tells this story of racism, politics, and injustice with the clarity of a documentary and the pacing of a thriller. Thank you to French Cultural Services/Unifrance.
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