Fahim

This is a real charming story, based on a real life story of the real young chess master who escaped Bangladesh with his father to France and how they did get their residence permit.

Being a true life story the film makes a conscience effort to looking as close as possible to real life with many scenes shot on location and minimal presence of movie making stunts. The so called lean approach to movie making. Only exception to this approach are the few scenes revealing to us - the viewers what really took place in Bangladesh to drive Fahim and his father away, these are edited in slowly allowing us more and more details of what the full story was, as the father tells more and more of his story. It's evident that Fahim did know the full story from start, but since this also the story of his father who made the real sacrifice bringing Fahim to France with nothing but hope in his bags, the movie lets us in on the full story only this way. No other intervention of the director is noticeable, a few sharp camera angles when things do get rough are almost forgettable. The actors are all genuine and heartfelt with the three leads topping the list. Thing is both Assad Ahmed who plays Fahim and Mizanur Rahaman who plays his father, are real rookies in the field, but they both look as real as any old pro would. Gerard Depardieu, is an old pro, who did this type of character many times before, and still he delivers a solid performance as the brute with the golden heart. That's one thing you can always count on Depardieu to do - perform like the professional he is.

One last, but unavoidable remark - the translation of the name - a touchy issue I can see why the original name Fahim could send a false signal to movie goers in Israel - but calling it The Wonder from Paris is a real stretch. Fahim, is from Bangladesh not from Paris so this translation is in fact a misrepresentation.