Here comes the first installment of the most controversial trilogy by the director of 'Blue Is the Warmest Colour'

About the first canto of Mektoub, my love (2017) the shadow of the films weighs that Abdellatif Kechiche was premiered before and after, Blue is the Warmest Color (2013) and Mektoub: Intermezzo (2019). The mistreatment by the director that the actresses denounced and the review of the male gaze in the case of the first and the controversy surrounding the objectification of female bodies that accompanied the premiere at the Cannes Film Festival of the second make it difficult to discover this First song without the sexualization of female characters does not turn out to be uncomfortable. Especially since the film starts with a very explicit sex scene in which the uninhibitedness that could be commendable is clouded by how much more exposed the actress is than the actor. But the scene also places the protagonist, possibly alter ego of Kechiche, like this voyeur who observes more than practices sex while taking photos and dreams of becoming a filmmaker.

Kechiche, who has always had a knack for registering the dynamics of young people with admirable naturalness, serves with the first Mektoub one of the films that best captured a transnational Mediterranean feeling through the youthful summer experience. With stretched out times, conversations that go on without getting anywhere, a relaxed concept of work, and a sensuality that, like sunlight, soaks everything. It is a pity that its approach to youth denotes a predatory condition, naturalized until not so long ago in the art world.