Let My People Go! (2011)

Directed by: Mikael Buch | 96 minutes | comedy | Actors: Nicolas Maury, Carmen Maura, Jean-François Stévenin, Amira Casar, Clément Sibony, Jarkko Niemi, Jean-Luc Bideau, Aurore Clément, Kari Väänänen, Outi Mäenpää, Charlie Dupont, Didier Flamand, Olavi Uusivirta, Christelle Cornil, Jean- Christophe Bouvet, Michaël Abiteboul, Olivier Claverie, Jonathan Sadoun, Esteban Carvajal-Alegria, Martin Siméon, Mathias Minne, Ludovic Berthillot

You rarely see them more clumsy than Rueben (Nicolas Maury). It seems that everything the young Frenchman gets involved in is going to shit. He moved to Finland for the love of his life, blond Fin Teemu (Jarkko Niemi). They live together in an idyllic cabin by a lake. The spoiled Rueben never finished his study ‘sauna cultures’; now he works as a mail deliverer in the nearby, lovely village that is full of brightly colored houses. A dubious package with almost 200,000 euros in it and the dead man from whom he received it turn things upside down. Teemu doesn’t trust the business and unceremoniously puts Rueben, who wants to keep the money, out on the street. He is forced to return to his Jewish family in Paris. It soon becomes apparent that Rueben ‘fled’ to the far north for a reason, because once he gets home he ends up in total chaos.

The farcical comedy ‘Let My People Go’ (2011) is the debut film of the Frenchman Mikael Buch. He wrote the script together with Christophe Honoré (‘Les chansons d’amour’, 2007). The film brings together the prejudices surrounding Jewish stereotypes and gay culture in a special way. Rueben’s family, which has been running a laundromat for decades, consists of a bunch of chaotic people. Mother of the house, played by Carmen Maura, hopes that her youngest son’s homosexuality is just a fad and that he has returned because he has finally come to his senses. His father (Jean-François Stévénin) has been having an affair for twenty years and wants to introduce his mistress to his children. Brother Samuel (Clément Sibony) has a rather short fuse and sister Irène (Amira Casar) is in the middle of a divorce. The nervous, insecure Rueben with his high falsetto voice can’t bring himself to explain his problems to his family. His clumsy behavior does, however, lead to further increasing mutual tensions. When he is also harassed by a family friend, the widely respected lawyer Maurice Goldberg (a hilarious Jean-Luc Bideau), the turnips are done. Will Rueben ever be reunited with the love of his life?

The countless developments to which Buch exposes his characters pass at lightning speed. The stamp ‘long-winded’ certainly does not apply to ‘Let My People Go’. But this crazy farce doesn’t really get interesting either. This is mainly due to the fact that the characters never come to life, let alone that we start to find them sympathetic. The only exception to this is Teemu’s über-liberal mother, played by Outi Mäenpää (known from Aki Kaurismäki films). She’s only in two scenes, but steals them both. As so often with farces like this, the film rarely wants to be funny. Maybe ‘made funny’. Only Bideau has the laughing stock. A commercial for a product that makes you really Jewish in no time (‘Jewish in a jiffy’) turned out to be a nice find. Nicolas Maury, however, especially gets on the nerves, with his lavish performance. His clumsy gossip is only sporadically funny. He does, however, deserve kudos for his command of Finnish, not the easiest language to learn; Maury got the hang of it in just four months.

‘Let My People Go’ looks nice thanks to its fast pace. In addition, the design of the film is worth it. The production design is of a high level. The film looks stylized, warm and colorful and is topped with a retro sauce. Theatrical and over the top, there’s nothing wrong with that. Although we would like to see more developed characters next time, so that we can empathize with them. The humor could also be a bit more layered. But Mikael Buch is definitely someone to keep an eye on, because he certainly has talent.