Street Flow

Three brothers share a flat in the Paris suburbs and are on three different paths: the eldest runs the drug trade in the estate, the middle one has become a lawyer, and the youngest is a bright student preparing for a philosophy competition. The youngest is trying to find his own way without being pulled into his brother's business. The film is not interested in crime. It is interested in three answers coming out of one household: it vindicates none of them and shows what each costs. The debate at the end, the philosophy competition, compresses the film's whole argument into one speech. The form is realist: estate blocks, the school, the bus. The violence is brief and unshowy. The rapper Kery James wrote the film and plays the eldest brother; the story comes out of his account of his own surroundings. Alix Mathurin directed. It was released on Netflix and reached a wide audience in France. Bakary Diombera plays the youngest brother. Who it is for: viewers who like French suburban drama and stories about brothers. Who it is not for: anyone after subtlety. The film states its thesis aloud repeatedly and its characters turn at times into carriers of ideas.