Updating Victor Hugo for the Twenty-First Century: Addressing Entrenched Inequality, Discrimination and Police Violence in Ladj Ly’s <i>Banlieue</i> Film, <i>Les Misérables</i> (2019)

Abstract In the same time that it took France to win the 2018 World Cup final, Ladj Ly’s film, Les Misérables (2019), takes viewers from jubilant football crowd scenes to protest in the streets. Produced as a response to the 2005 riots in France, Ly takes an urgent look at inequality and police violence in the banlieue or impoverished suburbs. His aim is both to debunk the Republic’s claim to universalism and to contest the representation of the banlieue in mainstream media and banlieue film. I argue that in claiming heritage from Victor Hugo, Ly explores the effectiveness of various media platforms for challenging social exclusion in the high-rise estates on the margins of the city, with their large immigrant populations. I look firstly at Republican values and marginalization in the banlieue, before considering banlieue film and how Les Misérables moves from nineteenth-century literature to twenty-first century digital activism in order to embrace a more inclusive society.