The new "face" of Europe - a face often black or brown, belonging to African and Arab immigrants - has rarely been as powerfully captured as in Abdel Kechiche's remarkable debut film. Young Moroccan Jallel (beautifully played by Sami Bouajila) comes looking for the lights of Paris but instead finds black market jobs and crowded hostels. Yet he also discovers a bracing solidarity between newcomers like him and other "outcasts" from French society - especially Lucie (Elodie Bouchez, from Dreamlife of Angels), a disturbed young Frenchwoman who will give Jallel a very distinctive experience of his new country. Avoiding sensationalism, Kechiche renders one man's dreams, fears and desires, as well as the concrete concerns of his daily life.

France, 2000. 130 min.