Round Da Way

Lascars (2009) is a French animated comedy you can watch online on iFILM, directed by Albert Pereira-Lazaro and Emmanuel Klotz and based on the cult comic series set in the banlieues of Paris. The voice cast includes Vincent Cassel, Diane Kruger and Omar Sy.

It's the hottest week of summer in a struggling suburban neighbourhood. Tony agreed to move a bag for someone — obviously drugs — and promptly lost it. José took a renovation job at a judge's place and knocked half the house down. Both of them now owe the wrong people, both are completely broke, and both are absolutely certain they can still pull this off. The film cuts between their escalating disasters and the wider cast of the quartier — local bosses, girls they're trying to impress, neighbours who have seen it all before.

The animation style is deliberately rough and angular, nothing like polished studio output, and the dialogue runs on the slang of the French suburbs — the same vernacular that shaped a generation of French hip-hop. It's a comedy about being young, skint and convinced you're the smartest person in the room. Stream Lascars (2009) online on iFILM.