Malik Bentalha has made his childhood dream come true. Jack Mimoun and the secrets of Val Verde which he wrote, directed and in which he plays the title role is a French-style Indiana Jones. “It was the master Steven Spielberg who influenced me from a very young age, he confides to 20 minutes. I grew up with his films. He’s the boss. »
He cooked up a role as a star adventurer on a television show. He is suddenly confronted with his shortcomings when he finds himself on a hostile island at the invitation of a mysterious young woman who is looking for her missing father. “I surrounded myself with a great team. That’s why I came here,” says Malik Bentalah. Joséphine Japy, Jérôme Commandeur, François Damiens and Benoît Magimel accompanied him to Thailand for this film which is as spectacular as it is funny. “I brought together people from different worlds who agreed to put their ego aside for the common good,” he explains. This mix of styles pays off.
Entertainment assumed as such
“I claim the fact of having produced entertainment without headaches but with beautiful shots”, insists the director in his thirties. Laughter bursts out when François Damiens, as a stupid mercenary, butts heads with Jérôme Commandeur as a petochard city dweller. “I wanted to make the youngest travel and for this film to seem like a Proust madeleine for the oldest”, insists Malik Bentalah who has reserved a tasty character “between Harrison Ford and Louis de Funès”.
This dynamic treasure hunt spares neither the adventures nor the gags and even less the references to popular culture to carry the spectator away at a steady pace. “I made myself a cure for adventure cinema, of all the films that inspired Spielberg and I read lots of biographies to nourish myself and respect the genre that I approach,” insists Malik Bentalha.
Hope for a sequel
The love of cinema is not the only asset of a joyful film. The sense of the gag that hits the mark and the way each performer is put forward gives an impression of generosity that is communicated to the viewer.
After experiencing a triumph at the Angoulême Francophone Film Festival, Jack Mimoun has all the qualities to become a huge public success. It would be amply deserved and would allow the development of a sequel that the end of the film gives hope for.