A look at the Middle East of yesterday and today, and a dive into the heart of the Conservatory with Valérie Donzelli

In Tout Public on Wednesday September 18, 2024, the film “Les Graines du figuier sauvage” by Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof, Olivier Guez on his book “Mesopotamia”, and the release of the documentary by Valérie Donzelli.

Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof, whose work has won several awards, is also under surveillance by his country’s regime, due to the protest nature of his films. When the uprising began in the country in 2022 after the death of Mahsa Amini, the director observed the movement from his prison cell, where he had been thrown for insubordination, and which he considered to be “a privileged observation post”. Two years later, her new film inspired by the Iranian women’s revolt Seeds of the wild fig tree sees the light of day, despite the constraints imposed by the surveillance of the authorities during filming. A film of resistance to be found in theaters from Wednesday, September 18, 2024.

This is what the writer Olivier Guez offers us with his new book MesopotamiaIt traces the genesis of what became chaos in the Middle East, following the archaeologist and aristocrat Gertrude Bell, the first powerful woman in the British Empire, who is tasked with drawing the borders of present-day Iraq.

Conflict over oil resources, cohabitation of communities tearing each other apart within the same nation… Olivier Guez’s novel sheds light on today’s political news.

“Gertrude [Bell] is associated with the creation of a geopolitical monster that is called Iraq today.”

A complex and still little-known female character, whom the author describes as “extraordinarily complex and interesting”to be found in the literary rentrée book Mesopotamia.

The new film by Valérie Donzelli, Conservatory Street, follows the staging of Clémence Coullon, a final year student at the National Conservatory, who revisits Shakespeare’s famous play, Hamlet.

The one who chose to direct her classmates tells how she came to the director, whom she had already met during a masterclass at the conservatory. “I came to see Valérie with nothing in the end. (…) And in fact, she followed us blindly.”she remembers.

Valérie Donzelli returns to the shoot where she and her teams let themselves be carried along by the actors from the conservatory, overflowing with a contagious energy, which is transmitted to the camera.

Conservatory Street is available in theaters on Wednesday, September 18, 2024.

A program with the participation of journalist Thierry Fiorile from the culture department of franceinfo.