“A madeleine of Proust”this is the image that comes to mind of the Franco-Moroccan filmmaker and producer Leïla Kilani, born in 1970 in Casablanca and who lives between Paris and Tangier, when we talk to her about the semi-final of the World Cup France-Morocco football, which she will watch on Wednesday, December 14, in Marseille.
For the director of On Plate (2011), social thriller filmed in Tangier, which had marked the Directors’ Fortnight in 2011 in Cannes, the round ball is a family story, synonymous with the rediscovered collective.
Does your heart lean towards the Atlas Lions, in view of the semi-final?
This match, I give it a name, it’s “David the outsider”, that is to say David against Goliath. It was David who made his way, against all odds. I really liked the sentence of the Moroccan coach, Walid Regragui, after the victory against Portugal, which allowed the Moroccan team to qualify for the semi-finals: “We are the Rocky of this World Cup”, he said. We want to be on the side of the outsider, and if it was Senegal I would be on the Senegalese side.
You are a “footballer”, you say. How did this passion come about?
It’s a memory that goes back to the 1986 World Cup. I was 16, Morocco found themselves in the round of 16 against Germany and were eliminated during extra time. But it was already a giant step! My father, who has always been very demanding on schedules and work at school, was totally addicted to football and did not hesitate to wake us up at one in the morning to watch the matches! What struck me at the time was the collective momentum that brought the country together. This is the first jubilation I experienced as a Moroccan. Football is an archaic ritual but also a communion.
The 2022 World Cup works like a resurrection: I lost both my parents, but the shared memories of football bring them alive, it’s a real Proust madeleine… Today I have a daughter, and it’s my turn I transmit this passion to him. I tell him: the Moroccans arrive in the quarter-finals like others dreamed of going to the Moon. Thanks to the Morocco team for walking on the Moon! It’s a collective that has dreamed a lot and that makes you dream, without setting limits, that’s the definition of heroes.
What marked you in the game of the Moroccan team during this World Cup?
Already, I would like to remind you that some players of the Moroccan team have dual nationalities – Spanish, Canadian… – these are people who have a head here, a foot there. They are in this happy, uninhibited schizophrenia, where identity assignment has no place. If I had to quote a recent match, I would choose the Spain-Morocco meeting on December 6, where the Moroccan team gave a great sporting lesson. Far from the individual flamboyance of this or that, on the ground, I saw a collective body become a wall of resistance. A wall that seemed to say [aux Espagnols] : ” You will not pass. » I saw there the beauty of collective craftsmanship.