Riad Sattouf - Portrait
- Apr 4, 2016
- 2 min read
Guess what? Riad Sattouf is coming to the French Institute!
On 6th April at 7pm he will present his unmissable graphic book The Arab of the Future to mark the British release (translation by Sam Taylor, published by Two Roads).
Bookings >> this way!
In case you have never heard of Riad, let me have the pleasure to introduce him.
Riad Sattouf is a best-selling cartoonist and filmmaker of Franco-Syrian origin. Born in Paris, he spent his childhood in Syria and Libya and came back to France as an adult to work for the French magazines Libération and Charlie Hebdo. He is now a weekly columnist for l’Obs Magazine.
His childhood is his main source of inspiration. He chose to explain it in The Arab of the Future: the story of his young years spent in the shadow of Muammar Gaddafi, Hafez al-Assad… and his father! The Arab of the Future received the prestigious Fauve d’Or prize at the 2015 Angoulême festival. This year, he was once again nominated at Angoulême (although things turned out to be a little complicated… read here). You wish to know more about The Arab of the Future? Check out this article from The Guardian.
No, no... it's not finished! I couldn’t write a blog post on Riad Sattouf without mentioning his other oh-so funny artworks, right? Riad has a large autobiographical production (also read: Ma circoncision or No Sex in New York). But he also focuses on teenagers in general, and has written as well as directed a couple of movies. He plays with focalisation (sometimes internal, sometimes external) and with the perception of reality. He says he tries to show that “le monde est étrange autour d’eux” (understand the world is weird when seen through teenagers' eyes).
So first, let me present you Les Beaux Gosses (The French Kissers) shot in 2009. At the time, it was a must-see for all teenagers (and it still is!). If you want to plunge into the world of an average teenage boy desperately looking for a girlfriend, you really have to watch it.
His second movie, Jacky au Royaume des filles (Jacky in Women's Kingdom) is a rewriting of Cinderella well-known story. It’s a reversal of society. Women have power. A new religion is created. There is no real moral but it raises interesting and questionable issues. Completely crazy!
Now, back to books. I would like to end with my favourite: La vie secrète des jeunes! From 2004 to 2014, Riad Sattouf drew one page of real life anecdotes for each weekly issue of Charlie Hedbo. These pages have since been collected in three books published by L'Association. Some of them seem completely unbelievable. But as a Parisian (okay, I’m from the suburbs...) I have to tell you: it's really the kind of scenes you could witness!
Have a look:
Last gift, a webserie inspired by the book:
Have you still not booked yet? >>tickets here<<
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