MJFF – Stay With Us
Stay With Us
French-Jewish entertainer Gad Elmaleh (one of France’s best-loved comedians) takes a journey of spiritual discovery in this poignant, warmly humorous self-portrait. Fusing fictional and autobiographical elements, Elmaleh directs and stars — alongside his Jewish-Moroccan family — in this religious “coming out.” Harboring a crisis of faith, the actor-comedian returns home to Paris after some years in America. When his bewildered parents (Elmaleh’s actual mother and father, portraying themselves) discover a figurine of the Virgin Mary in his suitcase, he is forced to admit his secret — and for them, it’s a nightmare! Determined to bring Gad back to reason and to his Jewishness, they turn his conversion into a battlefield — as Gad tries to make them understand that his sincere beliefs do not change his identity and the love he has for his family. Delicately facing a difficult topic, this affirmation of faith and family features moving, semi-improvised performances and trumpeter Ibrahim Maalouf’s gentle fusion score. Stay With Us is a gentle family comedy that puts a unique spin on humanity’s age-old search for truth.
