nº94 / LA SENTINELLE
- Zoltan Alexander
- 7 days ago
- 4 min read
Updated: 10 hours ago
Much-acclaimed contemporary artist and film director Ali Cherri presented his latest short film La Sentinelle at the 79th Cannes Film Festival earlier this year. An intense drama, portraying the inner struggle of a soldier, interpreted by Nahuel Pérez Biscayart.
Review by Zoltan Alexander
LA
SENTINELLE directed by Ali Cherri starring Nahuel Pérez Biscayart as Sergeant Lafleur
Sergeant Lafleur had a nightmare.
He wakes up in cold sweat in his barracks, somewhere at the border of Cyprus, in the midst of preparing for war. The geographic location plays no significant role in the film. He wakes up and does not know where he is or where he has been. Reality and fiction hit us from the first few minutes. Then routine takes over; Lafleur, as a watchguard, goes on duty and struggles with his silent burden of task and discipline.
The soldier looks straight into the camera, into our eyes, but his gaze is distant and empty, as if his body no longer belongs to him. The camera stays tight on him. The intimidating and often claustrophobic close-ups are reminiscent of the framing of László Nemes’s film Son of Saul, although the approach of the two directors is radically different.
His body helplessly struggles between strength and falling asleep. To keep himself awake, to kill time, he replays his nightmare as an experience.
PHOTO / “La Sentinelle" directed by Ali Cherri with Nahuel Pérez Biscayart / Photo © Courtesy of Last Dream Production
We see the tip of his gun in premier plan, so close that we could literally taste the oil on it when Lafleur slowly inserts it into his mouth. He then accidentally falls off the edge of a wall and ends up with a bleeding wound.
The doctor, played by Éric Cantona, grants him one night of freedom, under the condition that he must return before dawn. The director drew a mental landscape for this unexpected duo, a sculptural relationship, where the military madness of our contemporary world and the warmth of the healing and embracing bodies clash with each other.
PHOTO / “La Sentinelle" directed by Ali Cherri with Nahuel Pérez Biscayart and Éric Cantona / VIDEO / “La Sentinelle" directed by Ali Cherri at the club Les Survivants / Photo and Video © Courtesy of Last Dream Production
Lafleur’s nocturnal wandering begins in a Fassbinder-like theatrical set, far from a reproduction of reality, in an underground nightclub called Les Survivants, that is not just a place for a performance, but where another reality-unreality is created. A place that provides refuge to tired, broken souls and bodies. We no longer know what reality we are in, nor exactly in what space. The scene also reflects Lafleur’s state, who is in a limbo between awake and asleep, between mental projection and experience.
Inside the Lynchian club, a drug queen comes on stage, and Lafleur becomes fascinated by this beautiful creature. They share a drink, but the moment slowly drifts away from reality, and Lafleur returns to his barracks. The night ends with a suspension between destiny and desertion. The escape is unavoidable, radical, yet remains ambiguous, and the final act (we will not reveal it), is utterly invisible. The director plays with soundscapes and with our imagination.
PHOTO / “La Sentinelle" directed by Ali Cherri with Nahuel Pérez Biscayart / Photo © Courtesy of Last Dream Production
Nahuel Pérez Biscayart is a fine combination of strength and fragility.
He has proved it so many times. Under the direction of Ali Cherri, he does not need to read the script, and to a certain extent, he does not even need to act. Their synchronisation is flawless. Biscayart does not talk in most of the film (he has already proved the power of silent acting in Au Revoir Là-haut / See You Up There). In every move he makes, he is so expressive that with a sole twitch of an eyelid, we understand and feel his pain.
“What interests me are soldiers who are apart, out of the norm, and do not fit our idea of perfect, brave soldiers. They are often tired; their bodies are tired, fragile, and even falling. Falling asleep, falling apart. Their bodies resist for a while but involuntarily. In our violent world, citizens’ bodies are once again manipulated, mobilised, disciplined, and forced to be available."
PHOTO / “La Sentinelle" directed by Ali Cherri with Nahuel Pérez Biscayart
at the Cannes Film Festival / Photo © Courtesy of Last Dream Production
"I didn't want to make a purely harsh film, even though the world I'm filming is profoundly harsh. Today, reality is violent; bodies are caught in the logic of domination, discipline, and war. But what interests me is that even within this harshness, there are forms of tenderness that appear at times, very briefly.” Ali Cherri
Despite everything, a form of gentleness in life is most probably the sharpest weapon in a world that is desperately hardening.
Ratings 8.5 / 10
INDEX
COVER
“La Sentinelle” / Ali Cherri
Photo © Courtesy of Last Dream Production
Cover design © ZOLTAN+MEDIA Paris
FILM
“La Sentinelle” directed by Ali Cherri
Starring Nahuel Pérez Biscayart, Éric Cantona, Georges Torbey
Last Dream Productions
Thank you to Remi Bonhomme
UNIFRANCE
SEMAINE DE LA CRITIQUE
2026 (France)
PHOTOGRAPHERS
© Last Dream Production
VISUALS & WEBDESIGN
© Zoltan Alexander ZOLTAN+MEDIA Paris
WEB LINKS
ALI CHERRI
UNIFRANCE
SEMAINE DE LA CRITIQUE