In 1971, Mohand-Saïd Aït-Taleb, returned to his native Kabylia and married Ouardia. Eight years later, Xavier Le Clerc was born in Normandy. Le Clerc’s father “uprooted himself so that his children could put down roots”. His story shows us a century of French immigration history, from colonisation to exile due to poverty - rife in this small, remote corner of Kabylia, where according to Albert Camus, children in rags would fight dogs for scraps. In his adaptation of Le Clerc’s novel A Man With No Title, Jean-Louis Martinelli has entrusted Mounir Margoum with the task of telling this intimate yet universal family story. Alone on stage, Margoum faithfully recounts this poignant, painful narrative: a tribute to the men with no titles, those who society refused to acknowledge, yet who helped to rebuild post-war France.

Louise Sablon