The Upside true story; a quadriplegic, ex-con and their life changing friendship

A true story about a quadriplegic champagne executive might not immediately grab you, but his unusual – and touching – friendship with his ex-con carer will.

Philippe Pozzo di Borgo’s surprisingly feel-good story was already been made into a movie back in 2011, but now it’s being given a Hollywood spin as Kevin Hart, Bryan Cranston and Nicole Kidman star in The Upside.

Philippe admits he was "born with a silver spoon" in his mouth, he is the second son of French duke after all.

He grew up in castles and manors as the son of Pozzo di Borgo and the Marquis de Vogüé.

He was enrolled in the best schools in France, worked as a manager at Moet and Chandon, before taking on the role as director for Pommery.

But in 1993, it all came crashing down.

His paragliding accident

At the age of 42, Philippe broke his spine in a paragliding accident.

He’d been paragliding in the Savoyard reliefs of Mount Bisanne, in the Swiss Alps. Philippe had been paragliding for years, he was something of an expert, but that day, as he explained later, he hadn’t been paying enough attention. Distracted by thoughts of the workers he had laid off when forced to close a subsidiary in Switzerland, his attention slipped and he crashed.

He broke his spine, and his injuries left him a quadriplegic, meaning his arm and legs were paralyzed.

After the accident, Philippe’s wife, Beatrice, ensured he was taken care of, but then three years later she died after a long battle with cancer.

The millionaire sank into depression.

That’s when he hired Abdel Sellou, an ex-con man, as his carer despite him stealing a Faberge egg during his job interview.

The two became unlikely close friends, developing a strong bond that has goes well beyond Abdel’s employment.

“He basically helped me find the desire to live again,” Philippe writes in the preface to The Upside: A Memoir.

Now The Upside film brings the story of how they came together back to the big screen.

Abdel Sellou, convicted con-man to carer

Abdel came from a very different background to Philippe. Born in Algeria, one of nine children, he confessed he was “the devil” to his family.

Aged four, he was packed off to live in Paris with their relatives. Six years later, he was stealing and attempting to extort his classmates.

Not long afterward, his run-ins with the police began and Abdel dropped out of school.

Rather than pouring over textbooks, he came up with ways to steal from the tourists that roamed Paris’ streets until it all caught up with him and he landed in jail.

When he was released, Abdel realised he was eligible for government support – but only if he was employed.

His counselor urged him to apply for a role as carer leading him to interview with Philippe.

During their chat, Abdel gave little away, prison had made him closed off and unwilling to share details about his past.

But it had also made his direct, and he didn’t hold back, not even with Philippe.

He’d interviewed 90 people but he knew as soon as he saw Abdel that he was the one.

Philippe was 42 at the time, while Abdel was 21.

"We were two desperadoes looking for a way out: the wealthy quadriplegic and a young guy straight from jail who wanted to wreck everything," Philippe told the Independent . "Two guys on the margins of society who came to depend on one another."

Abdel’s handicap jokes were much worse than anything that could make it past a Hollywood script editor.

The honest, unfiltered approach was exactly what Philippe wanted, or needed, and he offered Abdel the job and a private apartment in his home.

Speaking to the Telegraph , Philippe said: “I knew he wouldn’t flinch and could take the initiative… This is the guy I need. I don’t give a damn that he is out of jail. I needed him.”

An unlikely friendship

When Abdel met Philippe he was in a rut, he was still getting used to his new life. Unable to use his arms and legs and with his wife battling cancer, life was hard. Abdel had nothing to lose, straight from prison, he didn’t hold back with the millionaire.

Philippe described him as “intolerable, vain and arrogant,” but he saw something else in him.

"He didn’t feel sorry for me – he was irreverent, cheeky and had an outrageous sense of humor,” Philippe said. “I suddenly found I was enjoying life again, feeling like I didn’t know what was coming next.”

Abdel became known as Philippe’s “guardian devil”. He got his wheelchair kitted out with a more powerful engine so they could race it and they pulled pranks.

One such prank saw them speed around the city in his posh car until they got pulled over by police, then Philippe would fake a seizure forcing the cops to take them to the nearest hospital.

Another time, Abdel tricked him into smoking a joint when Philippe was 48, telling it would “help him”. It took away the pain, but sent him to sleep for two hours leaving him groggy when he woke up.

It wasn’t an easy journey though. Philippe did try and kill himself once, wrapping his oxygen tube around his neck. He says the days of contemplating such a thing are long behind him now saying he thought of it because he didn’t want to be a “burden”.

Falling in love and Morocco

The previous film, The Untouchables, and the Memoirs get across that Abdel was also a womaniser, but he settled down and now has three children. He met his wife when he and Philippe visited Morocco.

He lives in his native Algeria, where he runs a poultry farm.

Speaking to Le Figaro, Philippe said: "Abdel and I finished our collaboration when we both found our soul mates. We finished our time together without sadness or difficulty."

And where is Philippe now? He moved to Morocco where he married Khadija in 2004. They have three daughters, two biologically Khadija’s and one that’s adopted.

Abdel still visits Philippe at least once a year, continuing their close friendship.

Philippe wrote his memoirs A Second Wind, where he writes about paragliding and the things he likes to do; like listening to classical music and smoking cigarettes.

The book follows Philippe’s life until 1998.

Abdel wrote his own version called You Changed My Life in 2012.

The pair’s bond also prompted the founding of Simon of Cyrene organisation in 2003, which helps disabled people. It’s named after the man who helped carry Jesus’ cross. The charity sets up shared homes where people with disabilities can live alongside able-bodied roommates.

The Untouchables v The Upside

The new film gives Hollywood’s take on Abdel and Philippe’s story, but it’s not the first film to do so. The 2011 Les Intouchables became a hit internationally and is one of France’s highest-grossing films of all time.

The film made some changes to their story, Abdel changed from an Algerian immigrant to a Senegalese immigrant so they could cast Omar Sy.

The script also added invented moments between the two, from Sy’s character pouring boiling water on Philippe’s character to show he can’t feel anything, to shaving his moustache into a Hitler-style one before a date.

The pair were interviewed for the script by the filmmakers, and Philippe was surprised to suddenly hear Abdel’s backstory. He was "ready to tell his story".

Philippe said at the time he "learned more about him during the three days spent together in  my home [Essaouira, Morocco] than I had in our fifteen-year friendship."

The French film’s success sparked retellings of their story the world over, with the 2016 Argentinian version called Inseperables, and the Indian remake Oopiri, released in the same year.

Now The Upside, with Kevin Hart and Bryan Cranston, gives the American take on the story, though it remains to be seen what changes they make.

What remains the same is that deep connection the friends have.

"According to [Abdel’s memoirs] I have changed his life," wrote Philippe. "That may be true, but in any case, what I am certain of is that he changed mine."

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