Diop’s first feature follows Steve, a 25-year-old Black man from the Paris suburbs who seeks to escape the violence of his immediate surrounding by training to become an actor at Cours Simon, one of France’s most prestigious drama schools, and dreams of playing the role of Danton in the Georg Buchner play of the title. But he soon discovers that the theater world is largely interested in having him inhabit only “Black” roles, placing Steve in a kind of purgatory: unable to return to the life he left behind, frustrated by the options available to him within the life he wishes to lead.

Screening with:
Towards Tenderness
Alice Diop, France, 2016, 38m
French with English subtitles
Four young men from the Paris suburbs talk to Diop about their own masculinity—both their macho facades and the fundamental desire for love that their posturing seeks to occlude.

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