Plot
Waël (Kheiron) is a petty criminal who lives with his foster mother Monique (Catherine Deneuve) in a Paris suburb. They get food by conning older grocery shoppers out of their purchases outside a supermarket. One day, when they try to rob Victor (André Dussollier), he recognises Monique as an old friend he had not seen for 30 years. He doesn't press charges in exchange for Waël and Monique working for him on a volunteer basis, Waël as a mentor for troubled teenagers who have been expelled, and Monique as Victor's secretary at the youth club he runs. Throughout the film, Waël's background is presented in flashbacks to his childhood in Lebanon in a Muslim village. The entire population of the village, including Waël's family, was massacred by Christian and Jewish soldiers when he was very small. He survived by pretending to be blind and picking pockets in a nearby city. It’s in this city where he witnesses two thugs rob and murder a young couple. Believing Waël is blind, they leave him alone. He is found and brought into a Christian orphanage by a nun: a young Monique. These thugs later see Waël in the marketplace with Monique and realize he is not blind. They break into the orphanage looking to kill Waël who runs away. He is again found by Monique and they escape to France where Monique raises Waël as her own child. Waël connects with the recalcitrant teenagers, but they only agree to return to the youth club when he offers them €10 per day. There are six students in the group: the intelligent and arrogant Nadia, Shana who admires Nadia with little will of her own, Karim and Ludo who are from neighbouring areas at war with each other, the Romany boy Jimmy who can't read or write and doesn't speak much French, and Fabrice who seems generally disaffected with life. Over the following week, Waël gains their confidence, sometimes by