Belleville Beats
Hugo Sobelman / France / 2025 / 87 min
It's summer in Paris, and at a youth club in Belleville the young people have an idea: they want to organize a music festival in a park. A fast-paced film where the positive energy comes from within.
In the Belleville neighborhood of Paris, there is a youth club. For some, it is also a second home. With good advice from the club’s adult leader, the idea of organizing a music festival takes shape, while the young people make choices that, one by one, shape their own lives. ‘Belleville Beats’ surfs the special atmosphere of summer in a big city, which gets an extra boost from the young people’s positive energy and commitment.
Rarely has there been so much talk in a film as when discussions here turn to topics such as diversity, class, and the future. The atmosphere is lively, and fortunately, the club is open from morning to night. Belleville Beats could have been a socially realistic downer of a film. It is certainly social, and realism is never far away, but the film – and not least the young cast – is a huge high. A high that culminates with a bang when the day finally arrives and the music festival kicks off. From the producer of the CPH:DOX hit ‘On the Edge’ (2023).
