Faïza Guène est réalisatrice de plusieurs courts-métrages. Parmi ceux-ci, on notera : "La Zonzonnière" en 1999, "RTT et Rumeurs" en 2002 et "Rien que des mots" en 2004. It's also potentially educational in that there's a lot to look up about French pop culture of the late 90s and early 00s, the sort of casual references you might get IRL: e.g. saying someone looks like a certain daytime TV presenter. (The book makes sense without knowing all these references, but I enjoy finding out this sort of stuff. If you like to look things up as you go, it means that this otherwise very straightforward book might not be the most convenient read for public transport.)

It’s like a film script and we’re the actors. Trouble is, our scriptwriter’s got no talent. And he’s never heard of happily ever after.” Guven's prose is far more slang-heavy than Gue ne's in Kiffe Kiffe Demain , but it drew praise from literary critics , with one saying the writer had delivered "an energetic renewal of the French language", given the book's unique rhythm. 'Older Brother' by Mahir Guven, has helped bring Arabic words into French mainstream literature. Doria, she gravitates toward thinking of her life in terms of movies, those thoughts are quite funny. A tale for anyone who has ever lived outside looking in, especially from that alien country called adolescence. A funny, heartfelt story from a wise guy who happens to be a girl. If you've ever fallen in love, if you've ever had your heart broken, this story is your story." -- Sandra Cisneros, author of THE HOUSE ON MANGO STREET

Book Summary

It seems like fate’s dealt them an impossible hand, but Doria might still make a new life. She'll prove the projects aren't only about rap, soccer, and religious tension. She’ll take the Arabic word kif-kif (same old, same old) and mix it up with the French verb kiffer (to really like something). Now she has a whole new motto: KIFFE KIFFE TOMORROW. Why did you put the matriarch Yamina, whose French-born children are nourished and overwhelmed by a love that “overflows like the Mediterranean”, at the heart of your book? But for the moment he says he is focusing on his job at Parisian publishing house Latte s, where has been appointed head of a literary imprint .

She was interviewed as if she were someone coming from a ‘no go zone’,” said Allary. “As if she were an alien who had come to talk to us. At the same time, it was obvious that she was intelligent with a sparkling personality, and the articles were very positive, but from her point of view, they had a zoological aspect to them.” A film like Les Miserables is very rare, says Guène. “It’s important to give young people the tools to think about our society and give them other archetypes than what we usually see. She’s moody at times like all teenagers are but she loves her mom and wants to better their lives and she got spunk to go with it - I’m sure both these women will do just fine on their own.And it was lovely to meet Doria and Yasmina. Their relationship was the best thing of all. Doria’s pride in her mother and how she was working to support them both. Yasmina’s confidence in her daughter, tempered with concern and uncertainly about what the future might hold.

In retrospect, I realised how difficult and brutal the media coverage was. I was the first of my kind and was treated like a court jester, a freak'The difference with her parents’ generation and their children’s, says Guène, is that they accepted not being considered French because they hadn’t grown up in France. “But I was told that I was French, a child of the republic. It was an unkept promise.” While Sarah Ardizzone, who translated Kiffe Kiffe Demain into English, spent time living in Marseille to brush up on the verlan spoken there , Kover went online to find slang dictionaries and watch vloggers who spoke in slang on their YouTube channels to help her find her feet. In the 2016 documentary Nos Plumes (Our Writers), filmmaker Keira Maameri (whose parents are also Algerian) focused on Guène and other authors and comics artists from the banlieues who are still perceived in France as being “different”.