Céline Roustan
In a surrealistic society, maybe not so distant in the future, Samy and Mehdi meet up for kebabs to catch up on Samy’s Valentine’s Day exploits. As Samy leans into a lengthy and lascivious retelling, the pair are interrupted by violent police harassment. They aren’t going to let that get in the way of a good story though. Sebastien Petretti wanted to call out the stigmatization of certain minorities in a humourous way, and State of Emergency Motherfucker!, a 5-minute comedy/parody viciously depicts an all too serious event in a funny, exaggerated and, ultimately, entertaining way, satirizing the expectation of violence that comes from being a persecuted minority.
Petretti perfectly penned and directed what I imagine a conversation between two teenage boys would be like when one is trying to recount what happened on his date the night before. The only thing Mehdi, and ultimately the audience, is trying to know is whether Samy went all the way. But Samy drags the story out by going into details, or adding side notes, making it sound like an epic tale. Told in rapid-fire verbal interplay, Samy’s narration dances with Mehdi’s annoyance, Mehdi only wants the answer to “did you score?”.
On its own the discussion is definitely hilarious, but is magnified by the context surrounding Mehdi and Samy. At first, when the cops ask the boys for their IDs as they are about to eat their kebabs, we might anticipate a change of tone. But the boys reaction or lack thereof communicate the normality of the occurrence. As the invasion of privacy and police harassment get worse, nothing distracts their conversation. Did SAMY SCORE?!?! This juxtaposition of ludicrous abuse and blasé indifference is a powerfully absurd. Mehdi and Samy could not care less and keep going, they got used to it, it is part of their daily routine.
The contrast between the ordinariness of two friends catching up while being beaten up, makes for a funny situation. The film relies on the contradiction between the light and frivolous conversation paired with the heavy violence, and it is the performance of the two actors that deliver the laughs.Their uninterrupted banter pushes the absurdity to a new level and make for even more ridiculous, and funny, film.
State of Emergency Motherfucker! has travelled around the world on the festival circuit with stops at Encounters, Palm Springs Shortfest and Regard. Sebastien Petretti is already working on his next project, a promising short film titled Make Aliens Dance.