Tunis, 1929. A passionate boxer since his adolescence, Victor Perez dreams of being a fighter like his brother Benjamin, a.k.a Kid. Thanks to Léon Beillères, who becomes his manager, he leaves Tunisia for Paris, where he becomes the first flyweight champion of the world. This show the promise of a fantastic and glamorous life, also highlighted by his relationship with actress Mireille Balin. But his life ends in a concentration camp during World War II.

Once highly successful with as the producer of Abdellatif Kechiche’s Games of Love and Chance, Jacques Ouaniche has passed under the radar, and his most recent outing won’t change anything. His ambitious debut film has all the ingredients of a great work: biopic of boxer Victor “Young” Perez, a Jewish Tunisian who had a wonderful start but died in a Nazi concentration camp, starring former world champion Brahim Asloum in his first acting role. A golden formula wasted thanks to banal direction, low-rent visuals, and choppy, terrible dialogue. Brahim Asloum is saved thanks to a performance that is relatively good because it is sober, but that is not enough to rescue Victor Young Perez from being an ordinary failure.