An Indian in the City: Chronicle of an Unexpected Success

The comedy with Miou-Miou, Thierry Lhermitte, Arielle Dombasle and Patrick Timsit returns this Sunday on TF1.

In view of the closing ceremony of the Olympic Games, which is expected to attract many viewers, TF1 is rebroadcasting An Indian in the citythe comedy ofHerve Paludwhich was a huge hit in cinemas 30 years ago.

Thierry Lhermitte finds his son raised in the jungle by his ex-wife. The young man named Mimi Siku (Ludwig Briand) then follows him to Paris and discovers a completely different world in which he will have to integrate, while his father is stuck in a difficult financial transaction with a disreputable Latvian businessman.

A popular comedy par excellence, the film is full of cult scenes and lines, which end up entering everyday language. From the giant spider Maïtika to the credits hummed by Uncle David (“Each one has his own road, each one his own path…”), An Indian in the city has entered the collective unconscious as great popular films do over the years.

Released at the end of 1994, An Indian in the city was a huge success in theaters with nearly 8 million admissions and still delights the channels that rebroadcast it today. It is thus in the top 3 of Lhermitte, who did better in 2006 with The Bronzed 3 (10 million) and The Dinner of Foolsin 1998.

Following this success, in 1996, Mimi Siku was even the hero of a video game (developed by Titus Interactive) and a year later, he was entitled to an American remake, An Indian in New Yorkstarring Tim Allen and Martin Short, which did not do as well. Ten years later, its director enjoyed another critical success with Albert is meanled by Michel Serrault and Christian Clavier, but at the box office, it did not reach 500,000 admissions.

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The synopsis ofAn Indian in the city : Stephane Marchadot (Thierry Lhermitte), Steph for short, a specialist in Asian markets, leaves for the Amazon to settle his divorce with Patricia (Meow Meow), who left 13 years ago. He sees the future in a rosy light. Business is going very well and in a month, he is remarrying Charlotte (Arielle Dombasle), a young beauty with a touch of oriental mysticism. But a surprise awaits her upon her arrival. Thirteen years old, that's exactly the age of Mimi-Siku (Ludwig Briand), his son, raised in the forest by the Indians. Patricia had left her pregnant and he knew nothing about it. Divorced but trapped, papa “Baboune” brings his Indian son back to Paris where the problems begin. The price of soybeans has collapsed and his partner, Richard (Patrick Timsit), who was waiting for his orders, did not sell on time. The little savage keeps getting into mischief and climbs the Eiffel Tower like a monkey. The Latvian mafia threatens him and he sabotages his father's wedding plans. Steph gets more and more stressed and the little Indian falls in love.