«Omar la fraise», a film that lacks flavour

Elias Belkeddar's debut film, screened out of competition at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival, Omar the Strawberry alternates between buddy movie, comedy burlesque, a gangster film and an ode to one's roots.

Omar Zerrouki (Reda Kateb), known as «Omar la Fraise,» reigned supreme over the Parisian underworld for years alongside his longtime partner, Roger (Benoît Magimel). But that was then. Sentenced to twenty years in prison in France, he returns with his friend to Algeria—the homeland of his father, whom he barely knows—to lay low. There, the two men will try to recapture their former glory in a country where they are now nobodies. Between shabby smuggling operations, running a cookie factory, and ridiculously brilliant ideas, will they ever recapture their lost glory?

Algeria: A Land of Opportunity

The film opens with a conversation between Omar and Roger in the desert and sets the tone right away: these two are a pair of clowns. True «old-school» gangsters, the two men are serious and don’t mess around. Yet their schemes and resources aren’t what they used to be: they’re stuck in Algeria, a far cry from the Paris they know by heart. Between weekly shipments of Camembert by boat and cocaine, time drags on, and they’ll have to start thinking about what comes next. Fortunately, Algeria offers opportunities to make a fortune: «In this country, if you want to become a millionaire, you have to start out as a billionaire,» one character even says. The stage is set.

Suddenly, a stroke of good luck: Omar has the chance to take over a cookie factory—a job that’s finally legal. But this prospect doesn’t seem to be enough for La Fraise, who sees himself as the city’s new king (the film’s English title, incidentally, is: The King of Algiers). The film then takes an unexpected turn given the first half-hour and the premise: wandering, romance, nostalgia. While we obviously can’t fault a film for not being what we’d like it to be, it’s still a shame in this case, given how enticing the promises were. The love story completely weighs down the narrative and slows the story to a crawl; Omar’s grandeur is almost never recaptured, and the film’s best element gradually fades from the plot. That element? Roger, played by a wildly intense Benoît Magimel.

Benoît Magi(c)mel

If there's one reason to go see it Omar the Strawberry, it’s definitely him. Benoît Magimel is absolutely perfect in this role that’s completely out of character for him (even though his career over the past two or three years has lost all sense of direction, making it impossible to pigeonhole him) and delivers a performance that alone is enough to elevate the feature film. Roger, his character, is Omar’s French sidekick; he’s escaped his sentence, so he has no obligation to stay in Algeria—except to provide unwavering support to his friend. For Omar, he is both the emotional support seeking to get the duo back on their feet and the social agent taking risks for both of them (since his record is clean). For the viewer, he is the inexhaustible source of comedy throughout these 1 hour and 36 minutes.

Not only is he funny, but he’s also absurd; not only does he sing, but he raps, too. Magimel seems to be having the time of his life playing this character. A far cry from his role as the inscrutable diplomat in Pacifiction (Albert Serra, 2022), yet the actor still carries himself with that Depardieu-esque swagger in clothes that are too small, and his nonchalance ignites every line, taking it to new heights. An example? Roger is working out—a routine session, one would imagine. He’s sweating and moving properly. But then why is he so overweight? Because between push-ups, he’s quenching his thirst with vodka. It’s scenes like this that really bring the character to life.

However, the film quickly loses steam, and despite its likable characters, some baffling decisions and a solid premise that’s never truly developed leave the viewer feeling that the story lacks substance beyond the dialogue. Although the film is short, the final third suffers from a drastic drop in momentum that makes you long for the action from the beginning.

In the end, Omar the Strawberry It’s a funny and surprising film, though its handling of the narrative and its themes could have used more refinement. Elias Belkeddar is nonetheless very clear-eyed about the ridiculousness of his characters and always seems to take the necessary «step back» to avoid turning them into unwanted icons. Worth seeing for the surprise, the general sense of being in a different world, and Benoît Magimel in full-on free-wheeling mode.

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