Sara Sadik Uses Video Game Style to Explore Young French Muslim Men’s Lives

Sara Sadik makes films about young French Muslim men and teenagers using video game graphics, 3D software and camera techniques that resemble games.

In her 2021 film *Khtobtogone*, a young man named Zine struggles to balance love with loyalty to his friends.

The film follows him through scenes of friendship, romance and work, while he wrestles with what kind of man he wants to be.

Sadik often sets her work in male-dominated places, including shisha lounges, and explores subjects such as grief, work and masculine hierarchies.

Her films examine private lives and pressures that are often less visible than public ideas about masculinity.

Sadik develops films through workshops with local communities in Marseille, where much of her work is set.

*Khtobtogone* is included in a group exhibition in Switzerland through January 2027, while another Sadik work is on view near Paris through March 2027.