Shoot

In a dusty vacant lot situated between banlieue blocks in moderate disrepair, the ground and the walls are a sunbaked yellow; the sky is a dense blue streaked with well-defined clouds. Noé uses his allotted time to show us a friendly pick-up game among a group of Arab and African teens. We’re to understand that this is their neighborhood, and we’ve been invited to play. However, we aren’t in the game as players. Noé’s experimental camera placement puts us in the 360° point of view of the soccer ball. We roll and fly, the ground and the sky whirling in an unanchored sphere of vision, our only points of reference being the kids who will happily kick us again.