A bad for a good.
This expression perfectly illustrates the incredible experience lived six years ago by Abdel Addala, assistant coach of Nogent-sur-Oise (R 2), expected this Sunday (3 p.m.) at Miannay-Averageville (Somme).
In March 2014, while still playing under the colors of Creil, the attacking midfielder suffered a ruptured Achilles tendon in his left ankle.
On the advice of his coach, Dominique Garat, now sports director at… Nogent, he joined the rehabilitation center in Capbreton, a privileged place for long-term injuries.
It is there that he makes, at the bend of a corridor, an unusual meeting: that of the successful director Maïwenn, on the initiative in particular of the film Polisse, released in 2011. “For us, she was there for heal her knee, but in reality she was scouting for her next film, smiles the 37-year-old deputy.
We got to know a few other boarders, and we didn't let go for a week.
"
The story could have been summed up in this short stay spent in good company.
But three weeks later, the phone rings: Maïwenn is at the end of the film, and offers the Creillois to shoot in his next feature film, alongside a certain Vincent Cassel but also Emmanuel Bercot and Louis Garrel.
"In all of her films, Maïwenn relies on people who play a role they play in real life, without necessarily being actors," explains the former midfielder.
And, in the one she was preparing, “My King”, a lawyer is injured while skiing and has to go for rehabilitation, where she meets a group of young people who will help her up the slope.
"
One of these young people will therefore be embodied by Abdel Addala, commercial in the civil.
The shooting, in Capbreton then in Paris, lasts nearly three months, and the Picard meets Vincent Cassel, the famous actor of "La Haine".
Acclaimed by the crowd on the way to the Palace
“He was benevolent, outgoing, remembers the Nogentais.
He's one of the greatest French actors, and when you see the simplicity of the man and the respect he had for us… It's unforgettable, it will remain marked for life.
In ten or fifteen years, I will be able to tell my children that Papa toured with Vincent Cassel.
And I'll have a movie to prove it to them!
Sometimes I think about it and I tell myself that it is not possible, I could not live that ... "
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Abdel Addala is not at the end of his surprises, and the beautiful story will turn into a fairy tale.
One evening, gathered at Maïwenn's house in front of a PSG match, the “My King” team learns that the film has just been nominated for the Cannes Film Festival.
Direction the Croisette for the amateur footballer, who falls into another world.
“I lived a week as a star, he laughs.
Some friends saw me on TV and called me asking: is
it really you?
We slept in the biggest hotels, we had cars with drivers, we went to Dior to get dressed and go watch the movies at night.
I met the biggest planetary stars.
I was carried away by something that was beyond me.
"
At dinner time, the educator shares his table with Jean Dujardin, Gilles Lellouche or Leïla Bekhti.
“On the day of the film's presentation, we walked the 800 m distance that separated the hotel from the Palace,” Addala remembers.
I was walking next to Vincent Cassel, people were cheering us on.
It was a crazy thing.
As we entered the room, 8,000 people applauded us.
Emotionally, it was very strong.
And I always remember that what got me there was a ruptured Achilles tendon… ”
Upon returning from Cannes, where the feature film won the Best Actress Award for Emmanuelle Bercot, the enchanted parenthesis closes.
And, if some directors offer him other projects, he prefers to resume his existence from before.
"It's a real job, and I'm not an actor," breathes Christian Castello's assistant, who talks regularly with his friend Maïwenn.
My life was not there.
I didn't see myself giving up everything to devote myself to the cinema, it was random.
I have no regrets.
I'm just happy to tell myself, sometimes, that I did something that hardly anyone has done… ”
The Red Carpet in Cannes
