Le Prince oublié (released in Australia as The Lost Prince, which may turn to be its international title) is a 2020 French comedy directed and written by Michel Hazanavicius and starring Omar Sy.
Djibi (Omar Sy) is a single father. Every night, he tells stories to his daughter Sofia before she falls asleep, but as she turns eleven and enters middle school, she is not interested in that any more. Also she seems to like a middle schooler named Max, and Djibi becomes jealous of him for getting her attention. Meanwhile a new neighbour (Bérénice Bejo) just moved next door. She is attractive and attempting to be friendly with Djibi, but he is too obsessed with his daughter to notice her.
When Sofia is eight, Djibi appears as the Prince, and Sofia as the Princess, in a sort of Fantasy Sequence where he is the hero of his tales, then a character or actor in an imaginary magical hollywood studio. As Sofia grows older, similar sequences happen but Djibi's character can no longer see the princess (the studio's staff prevents him from accessing tales), and a new prince appears who looks like Max.
Le Prince oublié provides examples of:
- Chekhov's Skill: At some point Sofia tells her dad some stuff about the future being ahead of us. In fantasy world he uses this as logic for going backward to the past.
- Classical Anti-Hero: Djibi is this kind of anti hero. He is very kind to his daughter, but also sort of stalking her, and quite incompetent during the whole film.
- Fantasy Sequence: Many of them happen. Djibi appears as a prince in a very extravagant outfit and seem to live in a magical hollywood studio designed to tell stories and where the technical staff control everything.
- Gratuitous English: While everyone in the film is French, on two occasions they randomly speak English with a terrible accent.
- No Antagonist: Djibi's only difficulty is that he has to move on and let his daughter grow. In fantasy world he has a minor imaginary antagonist named Pritprout but they are mostly friends.
- No Name Given: For some reason Bérénice Bejo's character is never named although she is quite important in the story. The actress is only credited as the neighbour (plus as a minor role she also plays in fantasy world). The neighbour's occupation is never known either.
