Beyond Nabil’s particular case, the child of immigrants, starting at the bottom of the social ladder, Une étoile pour Noël raises the question of individuality in the face of a society that does not recognize it, the ferocity of a world full of panicked adults, intent on setting boundaries on the fierce outbursts of childhood, and in a more intimate way, questions the strange struggle between the innate part and the part shaped by the desire of others when building an identity. “You shouldn’t be like me,” in other words: to be better than what was written, what was established. In any words, especially for Nabil, not being what he is. Be what others want instead: his father, his teacher, his friend Jean-Luc’s grandmother Genevieve… Simultaneous desires whose sole (unacknowledged) purpose is, in fact, to remove Nabil from his origins. What Nabil senses and scrupulously tries to respect. Because what he really is does not seem to be a good thing, because he is therefore apparently unusual, the only thing he can do is attain an out-of-the-ordinary position.