AllMovie

Cour interdite is about drugs, naïve dreams, and the demise of values. A young Arab from the Paris suburbs, where poverty, unemployment and drugs are very much the reality, Djamel Ouahab saw many people around him dying, which led him to this project that took seven years to complete. The director plays a drug dealer who takes care of his family, protects his mother, and tries to shield his little brother from the drugs around him. He also has to help an addicted friend to quit his habit. Just when we think that he might be successful, reality hits him in the face. The message is that you can't escape drugs with drug money. Cour interdite chronicles the drug dealer's descent into hell. It is a realistic film with poetic dimensions. Ouahab tries to show the world of drug addicts but also the human side of the dealer. His protagonist is dealing to make enough money to send his brother to the United States, which he thinks is the escape route from the inferno they are in. But his brother is also dealing on the side and he gets arrested. There is no escape. Most of the film is in black and white except the first scene, a dream sequence about the Big Apple, which is in color.