While waiting for the new part of Mektoub My Love by Abdellatif Kechiche, this first film should sweep you away! We owe it to one of the disciples of the director of La Vie d’Adèle, Salim Kechiouche. A little nugget with an exciting wind of freedom.
What is it about ?
After crossing the desert in his career as an actor, Yazid finally sees the end of the tunnel emerging. Sober for six months, he wants to show his new fiancée and Hassan, his 16-year-old son, that he is now another man who has regained a taste for life. But in a few days, the old demons resurface and with them the memories of his childhood in Algeria.
It’s a cinema that rarely leaves one indifferent, and in any case which creates strong expectations: the films of Abdellatif Kechiche. After his Palme d’Or 10 years ago for La Vie d’Adèle, each of the films by the filmmaker with a sulphurous reputation is scrutinized and is the subject of speculation about a possible release. The example of the famous Mektoub My Love Intermezzo is famous: more than 4 years later, we are still monitoring news of this film which has become invisible.
So, for the most impatient and the most aficionados of the filmmaker’s work, we must watch for a generation of actors following in the director’s footsteps. There was the already highly noticed work of Hafsia Herzi, notably with You deserve un love, and today, Salim Kechiouche, with L’Enfant du paradis. Salim Kechiouche has played in many of Kechiche’s films, including the Mektoub series. We clearly feel the filmmaker’s imprint on his work.
These films have in common a taste of freedom and an urgent production which gives a particular energy to the film. A very personal film, which we were able to talk about, openly, with the team on the occasion of the very first presentation of the film at the Angoulême Francophone Film Festival.
AlloCiné: Can you tell us about the genesis and the making of this film for which we sense that there was a strong energy between you?
Salim Kechiouche, director, screenwriter, actor: It’s a very small team, a bit like a commando that was going to blend into Paris, and elsewhere too. We went to film in Toulon in particular. I wanted actors that I liked, that I admired, that I respected and that I wanted. I called them. I told them “here, I have a project called L’Enfant du paradis”. We talked a lot before, when we prepared the roles.
There was urgency, but there was also a freedom, which was an extraordinary luxury that I wanted for my actors, for myself. As an actor, I’ve always dreamed of this. There was still a lot of work before and a lot of commitment on the part of Nora Arnezeder, Kevin Mischel, Naidra Ayadi, Salif Cissé, all the actors… We worked a lot before to have this freedom on the set and say to each other “Now let’s let go and let’s go”. We follow the structure of the scenario, but at the same time, we can go off track, come back, retrace our steps. So, emergency, yes, but preparation.
Nora Arnezeder, actress: You can’t do improv if there isn’t real work behind it. Already, there was a script that was very good, very solid, with a real structure. I always dreamed of making a film like this. I prayed every day to make a film like this.
Kevin Mischel, you have acting experience in Divines, perhaps less commando than this film, but which also had this somewhat family and very personal approach…
I see the comparison. Each director will often tell you that he draws inspiration from his life, from moments, etc. In L’Enfant du paradis, I felt a sincerity, a story, a past. There are these archives.
There is something that is so strong for me, that makes this film very touching and beautiful. And Salim will say it better than us, but it is also a tribute to a friend who left too soon. It’s a tribute to the family. There is a mixture of all that. There are really a lot of strong things in this film.
The Twenty-Fifth Hour Nora Arnezeder and Salim Kechiouche
Nora Arnezeder: This film really moved me and really made me want to call my mother and hug her.
Salim Kechiouche: You’re going to make me cry… I needed to make this film with my family. I really feel like I’m giving myself away and at one point, I asked myself the question of immodesty or not. I really thought about it. I said to myself: “Do I do it, do I do it or don’t I do it?”
There is archival footage in the film. I really made this film as a family, really. It’s not a caricature, it’s really my cinema family and I would like to see them again, do things with them, go on vacation with them. This is really my family and we’re going to make films together. Did we say that to each other?
Nora Arnezeder: I told her “You can’t make a film without me”!
It’s a film in homage to an actor with whom you became friends (Yasmine Belmadi, missing in a road accident in 2009 and which we could see in Adieu Gary, Editor’s note), and hence this title too, I imagine…
Children of Paradise was one of his favorite films. This title also resonated with an actor who comes from a modest background. Paradise at the theater is the place where modest people come to watch plays. We call it paradise.
It’s a beautiful title and it makes sense in relation to his death. I wanted to start with death. We know in advance that he is condemned. How he is caught up by his past, by his turpitudes, by what he is working on from within. He has everything to succeed, he has everything to get there and he can’t do it. Sometimes life is like that. Life is unfair. And it had an impact on me in relation to my friend. I wanted to tell. I had to bear witness to it.
These archive images that we see in the film, where do they come from?
These are images from a camcorder that my father bought in the 90s. I had fun making little films, parodies. I made little edits, I was fascinated by the image. And my father had filmed my mother because she was about to die. I had these images and I wanted to actually put animation in the film. I had written animated image scenes. And unconsciously, I realized that I had this in mind in the archives. With my editors, I told them I had this. We started working on that and it provides anchor points in the past, in nostalgia, in reality.
To come back a little to the way you shot, I was wondering if you had in mind a director like Abdellatif Kechiche with whom you worked a lot?
We didn’t have the same amount of filming time. We did 20 days. With Abdel, we make films in four months! In cinema, the real luxury is time, and we didn’t have it. Afterwards, obviously, it’s an undeniable inspiration. I try to feed off my actors too. They inspired me a lot.
Abdelatif Kechiche was also an actor. In any case, in acting direction, there is a feeling that is undeniable. I find that all directors, all directors should act before directing actors, because sometimes it’s so distanced, so impersonal… There are directors that I adore, but very technical.
And to continue talking about Abdellatif Kechiche, on Mektoub my love, for example, we didn’t have the script, and we played the scenes as if they were improvisation. And when I read the script afterwards, I realized that we had done exactly what was in it and that it led us towards the script, and that we thought we were making things up when in fact it was. He was the one who led us. And I wanted to do that with the actors, that is to say I gave them the script, I made them read the scenes, but not learning by heart. I don’t want a recitation.
The director is there to accompany. We talk about direction, but even direction, but it’s a somewhat overused word, it’s support. We support, we provide security, we reassure. Sometimes we push a little, but above all we accompany. When a director trusts me, I want to give him everything I have.
Comments collected at the Angoulême Francophone Film Festival 2022