One of the best surprises at this year's Film Festival has been a new movie that throws new light on the people of Aubervilliers, one of the most deprived and roughest districts around Paris. The film is a daringly structured mix of a series of events all taking place during a day, interspersed with interviews with past and present residents of the area. Despite this being a somewhat unflattering look at the area, the Mayor of Aubervilliers is obviously pleased with the film: he came to the screenings here in Cannes to show his support!

In black and white, and with impressive camera work, this just might be a success. We are given a quite different image of Aubervilliers, somewhere where there is solidarity, diversity, and a genuine affection for even the ugly tower blocks. When people in the street are interviewed, they are sometimes shown criticising the area, but the directors cleverly interlace images that show true attachment and affection between the residents. There's even a poem of affection for the area.

I caught up with co-director Hakim Zouhani, and asked him about the project.

"Hakim, this is a lovely film, well done. How has your trip to Cannes been?"

"It's been great - we were so moved at the first screening, and to see so many people show up and appreciate it, it was fantastic! We got major praise from some of the key people here."

"What inspired you for this one?"

"I think the biggest influence was probably Paul Auster's "Brooklyn Follies" - it's the same idea of a series of interlaced plot lines all taking place in a tough area and showing how the people interact.

"There have been films in the past that show the Cités. How is yours different?"

"If I think about "La Haine", or "L'Esquive", they are good films, but they are not very authentic - it's not like that really. I didn't think those characters represented the people I see every day. Here we worked really hard to get real people that we know and have them just be themselves".

"Do you think the Cités are well-represented in the French media?"

"There's a section in our film where we show an extract from France 2 national news - it's about some kids stealing a scooter. This was completely fabricated. I was so mad about that piece that I had to include it. That's sadly the way it is - the journalists feed on fear and make things up. Well not all of them, and not all the time, but there's too negative an image."

One of the interviewees is crime writer Didier Daeninckx , who talks passionately about how French culture has tended to ignore the "Cités", these districts around the major towns where there is frequently a high unemployment rate and a high proportion of immigrants and their descendants. He says "If you are not fictionalised, you don't exist". If that's the case, then you can relax Mr Mayor. Aubervilliers truly exists thanks to this amazing blend of fiction and documentary.

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