Ladj Ly

Ladj Ly (born 19 March 1980 in Paris) is a French film director and screenwriter whose work has become synonymous with socially conscious cinema that confronts contemporary French urban realities. Growing up in the economically disadvantaged district of Montfermeil, Ly was profoundly shaped by the multicultural environment and the tensions that erupted during the 2005 French riots, experiences that later informed the raw authenticity of his visual storytelling. In his early twenties he co‑founded the collective Kourtrajmé alongside friends Kim Chapiron, Romain Gavras, and JR, a collaborative platform that nurtured a generation of French auteurs and gave Ly his first practical experience behind the camera. His initial forays included directing music videos for Oxmo Puccino and crafting documentary shorts such as 365 jours à Clichy‑Montfermeil and Go Fast Connexion, works that documented everyday struggles and highlighted the invisible lives of suburban youth. In 2011 Ly faced a serious legal setback when he was sentenced to three years’ imprisonment for kidnapping and false imprisonment; the sentence was subsequently reduced on appeal, a period that deepened his resolve to address injustice through art. The watershed moment of his career arrived with Les Misérables (2019), his debut narrative feature, which earned the Jury Prize at Cannes, a Lumière Award for Best Screenplay, and an Academy Award nomination for Best International Feature Film, establishing him as a leading voice in contemporary French cinema. Beyond directing, Ly has contributed to the film community by founding a free film school, "L'école Kourtrajmé," in Montfermeil in 2018, providing aspiring filmmakers from marginalized backgrounds with training and resources. His sophomore feature, Les Indésirables, premiered at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival, and he is slated to direct the biopic Dumas – Black Devil in 2025, a project that promises to further explore themes of identity and resistance. Throughout his career, Ly’s work remains marked by a relentless commitment to depicting the lived realities of France’s peripheries, blending documentary precision with narrative drama to provoke dialogue and inspire change.