District B13

Two athletes in the lead

District B13 is the first feature by Pierre Morel, cinematographer on several EuropaCorp productions; Luc Besson co-wrote and produced it with Bibi Naceri. It opened in France on 10 November 2004 on a simple bet: cast athletes, not actors, in the two leads. Parkour co-founder David Belle plays Leïto. Professional stuntman Cyril Raffaelli plays Damien Tomaso and choreographed the action himself. The rooftop chases were shot without wires or CGI, which drew comparisons with Ong-Bak.

Cyril Raffaelli, a competition fighter

Raffaelli started martial arts at six with nunchaku, then Shotokan karate, before joining a circus school at 14. He was French sanda champion in 1998 and won several international wushu titles before retiring from competition in 1999. He had already fought Jet Li in Kiss of the Dragon (2001). Here he gets the film's best-known scene, raiding an illegal gambling den and taking out a gang boss's bodyguards on his own, using every piece of furniture in the room.

What a practitioner will recognise

The fights blend wushu kicking, sanda-style punching and plenty of acrobatics. They aim for speed and use of the set, Hong Kong style, rather than street realism.

Production and reception

Shot in Romania and around Paris, the film drew about one million admissions in France. Magnolia Pictures released it in the US on 2 June 2006, where it holds 81% on Rotten Tomatoes. A sequel, District 13: Ultimatum, followed in 2009, and a US remake, Brick Mansions, in 2014, with Paul Walker and David Belle.