Bye-Bye

Writer/director Karim Dridi's follow-up to the overpraised PIGALLE isn't nearly as sensational, but no less thoughtful. Young Ismael (Sami Bouajila) and brother Mouloud (Ouassini Embarek) arrive in Marseilles, where they move into an overcrowded flat with their uncle's family. It's supposed to be a temporary arrangement: Ismael has promised to send Mouloud back to his parents, who have left Paris for their native Tunisia. But Mouloud is seduced by the flash of Marseilles, and escapes into the city's sinister underworld of crack and prostitution. Since BYE-BYE is only the latest in a recent string of French films about multicultural issues, Dridi attempts to disting...