The revolt of the "Little Hands"

Director Nessim Chikhaoui came to the Rencontres du Cinéma de Gérardmer to present his film inspired by the Paris hotel maids’ strikes. A mix of comedy and social film.

The "Little Hands" are fed up with being exploited and invisible, and for once have dared to revolt. — The “Little Hands” are fed up with being exploited and invisible, and for once have dared to revolt.

The film “Petites mains” (Little Hands) comes out today, May 1, on Labor Day: “It’s like a sign, symbolically it makes sense”, says director Nessim Chikhaoui, who came to the Rencontres du Cinéma de Gérardmer to present this feature film co-written with actress and director Hélène Fillières. The story was inspired by the long strikes by chambermaids at the Park Hyatt and Ibis Batignolles hotels in Paris. At the latter, Rachel Keke led the social movement and has since been elected to the French National Assembly. Her story alone could have justified a film, but the filmmaker broadened his focus: “I thought it unfair that only this struggle should be portrayed, and I found it interesting that it should take place in a palace,” he explains.

So it’s in a Parisian palace, where the “little” staff are on strike and have symbolically planted a picket line on the sidewalk, that young Eva arrives, played by Lucie Charles-Alfred (who starred in Nessim Chikhaoui’s first film, “Placés”, and had a small role in the “Sambre” series). “Eva is pretty close to me,” says the actress, who learned how to make a squared bed: “I was trained for two days at Le Bristol.

Eva is “someone who lives in a welfare hotel and cleans rooms in a palace”. She has a hard time adjusting to the rigorous protocol and demands of the luxury establishment, and is considered a strike-breaker, having been hired temporarily to replace one of those “Little Hands” who are fed up with being exploited and invisible, and for once have dared to revolt. Eva has joined the team of Safiatou, Aissata, Violette… and Simone, the cantankerous old hand played by Corinne Masiero. Worn out and tired by decades of long-distance commuting, Simone still works overtime in the gym, despite her bad back.

Solidarity, mutual aid, humanity

Young Eva, played by Lucie Charles-Alfred (center), arrives at a palace where she is to be trained by Simone, a cantankerous old hand played by Corinne Masiero.

“With Corinne Masiero, it was a bit of a sport. She’s true to what we know about her, but I wanted someone committed,” says Nessim Chikhaoui, who chose the actress who plays the famous “Captain Marleau” on TV. He also entrusted the role of a trade unionist to Kool Shen (from NTM), almost unrecognizable: “I wanted someone to accompany these women who are leading the struggle. He was already a bit of a trade unionist in his younger days, he was a youth spokesman with NTM,” adds the director.

“All the Parisian palaces refused to shoot the film, except the Bristol,” explains Nessim Chikhaoui, who has gleaned a few anecdotes about the wealthy clientele of Parisian palaces. But his real subject is the contrast between the precariousness of the staff, most of whom are female workers of immigrant origin, and the glitz of these hotels, where a single night can cost ten times more than a chambermaid’s monthly salary.

Of course, “Petites mains” is about solidarity, mutual aid and humanity, but the film vacillates between simple comedy (Nessim Chikhaoui is co-writer of “Les Tuche”) and social film, with sequences switching from one genre to the other, from an improvised fashion show by strikers during Fashion Week to the same demonstrators being violently dislodged by the CRS. The result is a form of positivism and confidence in the social struggle, which ultimately corresponds well to the spirit of May 1st.

Patrick TARDIT

“Petites mains”, a film by Nessim Chikhaoui, with Lucie Charles-Alfred, Corinne Masiero, Kool Shen (out May 1).