Bad Seeds (2018 film)  Bad Seeds () is a 2018 French drama-comedy film written and directed by Kheiron who also plays the lead role, with Catherine Deneuve and André Dussollier in starring roles. It was released on 21 November 2018 in cinemas in France, and on 21 December 2018 on Netflix. The film centers around Waël, a con man whose life is changed when he is forced to work as a mentor for a group of teenagers who face expulsion from school. Waël (Kheiron) is a petty criminal who lives with his foster mother Monique (Catherine Deneuve) in a Paris suburb. They make ends meet by conning grocery shoppers out of their purchases outside a supermarket. One day they try to rob Victor (André Dussollier), who recognises Monique as an old friend he had not seen for 30 years. He agrees not to press charges provided that Waël and Monique agree to work for him on a volunteer basis, Waël as a mentor for troubled teenagers who have been expelled, and Monique as Thomas's secretary at the youth club he runs. Throughout the film, Waël's background is presented in flashbacks to his childhood: he was born in an unspecified Middle-Eastern country, in a Muslim village. The entire population of the village, including Waël's family, was massacred by Christian and Jewish soldiers when Waël was very small, and he survived by picking pockets in a city until he was accepted into an orphanage run by Christian nuns. He befriended Joseph, a Christian boy whose family had been killed by Muslim soldiers, and who taught him French. After being sexually abused by one of the priests, Joseph committed suicide. Some time later, the orphanage was attacked by Muslim extremists and most of the adults and children were killed; Waël escaped the attack, the second massacre in his life, together with one of the nuns. Waël manages to connect with the recalcitrant teenagers, but they refuse to return to the youth club unless he pays them €10 per day. There are six students in the group: the intelligent and arrogant Nadia, Shana who admires Nadia but has little will of her own, Karim and Ludo who live in neighbouring areas and constantly pick fights with each other, the Romany boy Jimmy who can't read or write and doesn't speak much French, and Fabrice who seems generally disaffected with life.