Omar m’a tuer (2011)

Directed by: Roschdy Zem | 85 minutes | drama | Actors: Sami Bouajila, Denis Podalydès, Maurice Bénichou, Salomé Stévenin, Nozha Khouadra, Afida Tahri, Yanis Abdellaoui, Ayoub El Mahlili, Martial Rivol, Lounès Tazairt, Liliane Nataf, Catherine Salviat, Pascal Elso, Gabriel Didier Laura, Pierre Brichese

As one of the many films about a prisoner who is incarcerated, but continues to be innocent, ‘Omar m’a tuer’ finds it difficult to distinguish itself. After a somewhat unbalanced start, the film does spring up and gets stronger, but it fails to become really decisive in its final, so that the film still feels like a snack despite its heavy theme.

Gardener Omar Raddad is arrested in 1991 for the murder of Ghislaine Marchal whose garden he manages. The affair occupies all of France, and despite a lot of implausible evidence, he is soon sentenced to no less than eighteen years in prison. The film ‘Omar m’a tuer’ splits up and shows the developments in 1991 on the one hand – with Omar’s multiple innocent pleadings – and on the other the frantic efforts of a writer who gets stuck in the case in 1993, and partly for his own sake. gain and partly to fight injustice wants to get him free.

Although ‘Omar m’a tuer’ is based on a true story and aims to present itself through the storyline about the writer and his book as a kind of movie version of Truman Capote’s famous book ‘In Cold Blood’ – who also wrote a much acclaimed book about a mysterious murder case – just doesn’t want it to go smoothly. The case easily convinces itself as important, yet the film seems to be capable of little more than pity for Omar, which it succeeded after only a few minutes. Story-wise, the majority of the film is fine, and the mystery surrounding Ghislaine Marchal’s murder is fascinating enough to keep you interested for a long time, but seems to have been rushed towards the end, leaving ‘Omar m’a tuer’ to fall short of others. movies based on true stories about innocent prisoners, such as Jim Sheridan’s ‘In The Name Of The Father’. Director Roschdy Zem – who is known as an actor from films such as ‘Indigènes’ and ‘Outside the Law’ (‘Hors la loi’) – unfortunately does not sufficiently convince.