A Rose Travels Through Paris in Dark Promo for French Rapper Gaël Faye

My Accomplice director Raphael Levy has recently shot a beautiful music video for French rapper Gaël Faye. 

The promo, shot on the poetic streets of Paris, seamlessly threads together the lives and stories of different protagonists... all bound together by the sale of a street vendor's rose.

Below, Raphael explains his experience working with Gaël Faye on creating 'Paris Métèque'.

Gaël and I are driven by the idea of making films, features; we want to tell stories together. We connected over our East African backgrounds, sensitive perceptions about life and human beings. Gaël wrote the story for the promo, and then I adapted it into a script. Paris Métèque is the third promo we have shot together, but it’s only the second one we have treated this way - like a short film, training for the long format. 

'Tot Le Matin' was about youth. Young bodies challenging life and freedom fearlessly; it’s bright and luminous. Whereas 'Paris Métèque' is darker with tired bodies, older people with long stories behind them in their original countries, very far away from the magic capital. It's a vision of what could be the true Paris. It's a Paris we like, but it's rough and tough. 

I did the casting and location scouting on my own for these films. The budget didn't allow us a lot of comfort but this way, the approach was much more personal. 

I walked 19km on the first day, and 15 the second and third, going from one dodgy hotel to another checking each room, looking for the perfect place. 

We always found generous people that understood the project and the story and they just offered their places for almost nothing. 

The production was shot in the north of Paris between Belleville, Stalingrad, la Goutte D’or and Montmartre. We shot most of the scenes with the rose seller under the aerial tube, where thousands of refugees were taking shelter a year ago and got expelled and taken to camps. 

Since then the huge space under the tube is fenced off so no refugees can take shelter there anymore. We thought it was a strong symbol to have him there, walking until he reaches the fence. 

The Rose seller is Antonythasan Jesuthasan aka Shobasakthi. He was the main character of Deephan, Jacques Audiard's film that won the Palme d’or in 2015. 

Shoba is a true refugee, writer and actor. He arrived in France 25 years ago after he found a fake French passport in Bangkok. 

To make a long story short, he was the perfect character, and it was beyond our hopes to have someone like him in our film. But he liked the script and connected with Gaël's stories. 

We shot with a very tight crew but with our experienced team - such as Laurent Tangy, who is now a major french DOP - the frames take you straight into the film.