“Shéhérezade”: The One and a Thousand Ways to Strengthen Love

“Shéhérezade” is a candid, raw, and emotionally intricate French independent film directed by Jean-Bernard Marlin. Premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 2018, “Shéhérezade” received the winning titles of the César Awards in France, the Brussels International Film Festival, among many other accolades. In addition, it has been nominated by various European and International film festivals.

The story is set in the underprivileged areas of Marseille, France, where poverty forces the inhabitants – in its majority North African immigrants – into cycles of violence and abuse, drug consumption, and prostitution. Perhaps inspired by the Italian Neorealism films in the 1940s, “Shéhérezade” dives deep into the seemingly mundane battles of the characters between upholding their humanity and facing systemic poverty. Moreover, the casting and settings in the film were deliberate in conveying Marseille’s approximate present reality. Dylan Robert, for instance, playing the teenage protagonist in the film and a Marseille native, was recently out of prison when he was assigned the role. The scenes also display streets where prostitution takes place in real-life. “Shéhérezade” is at its core a teenage love story, but complicated tenfold by the personal circumstances of the couple: their abrasive poverty, lack of parental care and support, and procuration and prostitution. These complications, in turn, raise ethical questions on the love-related values of intimacy, loyalty, and sacrifice. Are the ideals of loyalty and intimacy essential to love? Or, conversely, can the sacrifice of these ideals build and strengthen love?

The film begins with Zachary, played by Dylan Robert, a good-looking and rebellious teen from Marseille who was recently released from prison. Unwilling to stay in the foster care system and neglected by his single mother, Zachary goes to his best friend, Ryad, played by Idir Azougli. To celebrate his release, Ryad takes Zachary to a prostitution alley. Looking around the red-light streets of Marseille, Zachary meets the astute and pretty Shéhérezade (played by Kenza Fortas), whom the movie is named after. Their relationship quickly blossoms into love, as Zachary, homeless after prison, ends up living with Shéhérezade. In the face of financial necessity, Zachary, although madly in love with Shéhérezade, becomes her procurer, defending her body and the streets where she sells it. The film reaches its climax when Ryad and his friends gang-rape Shéhérezade, leaving her hospitalized. The people around the couple are quick to invalidate the event as rape. For others, Shéhérezade is just a prostitute who offered a service, and there is no reason for Zachary to get angry that her girlfriend got involved with other men – she has done it all along. The rape and the misunderstanding from others of their love make explicit the ethical dilemmas Zachary felt: how are loyalty and intimacy defined in a relationship like theirs? How can he protect Shéhérezade amid the conflicting dichotomy of their relationship – procurer and prostitute, but also lovers? Unable to process his situation, but deeply in love with Shéhérezade, Zachary testifies against Ryad and his friends in Shéhérezade’s rape trial, who end up in jail. Simultaneously, however, Zachary confesses to the crime of procuration, a crime he unwittingly committed. As a result, he returns to prison.

The central ethical dilemma arises from the film’s in-depth exploration of the mundane. No characters are to be directly blamed in the plot, but rather the systemic poverty and prejudice. Throughout the film, both Zachary and Shéhérezade’s bodies reveal their inner child that requires protection and guidance from an adult. Shéhérezade involuntarily sucks her thumb after an excruciating day at work, and Zachary is afraid of sleeping in the dark. From the absence of a caring parental figure and in response to their overt financial necessities, the young couple helplessly falls into the clandestine sex industry. Shéhérezade must sell her body daily, and Zachary can do nothing but watch his lover drive away in another man’s car.

Their dynamics forcibly challenge the ideals of intimacy and loyalty in love. The intimacy of their relationship is questioned as sex is commodified into a service that can be easily bought for a few euros. Zachary feels unsure about the boundaries he should establish over Shéhérezade’s body, conflicted between her reality as a prostitute and his lover. Nevertheless, the conditions of their relationship do not deny Shéherezade and Zachary's intimacy and loyalty. On the contrary, through the sacrifice of conventional ideals of them, such as that of physical exclusivity, they reshape the meaning of love and build a more profound level of mutual trust.

“Shéhérezade” is a film that broadens love into all its possible forms. From the film, we learn that we construct love in accordance with the conditions that surround us. When the ideals of love that we hold onto are challenged by these conditions, we comply, possibly naming this acquiescence as a sacrifice. However, the term sacrifice should not be understood as the loss of something we are entitled to. Sacrifice, rather, could be seen as a shattering of notions. The shattering ultimately becomes debris of ideals upon which we cement new constructions that not only redefine but strengthen love.