Who is your ideal roommate? And what are you looking for? Around a table, a beer or a computer, aspiring roommates talk about everything and nothing, but especially everything, in this first feature-length documentary by Halima Elkhatabi, produced by the NFB and very aptly named Cohabit.
Remember her name, since the young Quebec director (born in France and of Moroccan origin) has already made a name for herself at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), which is taking place these days, where two of her productions have been selected this year (Cohabittherefore, as well as a short fiction film: Fantas).
“I feel really grateful,” confides the Montrealer, met on the eve of her departure for the Queen City last week. Especially for CohabitHalima Elkhatabi says she senses a clear “interest” here.
PHOTO PATRICK SANFAÇON, THE PRESS
Director Halima Elkhatabi
The themes covered are so contemporary, it happens in every metropolis in the world!
Halima Elkhatabi, director
Not to mention this “reality” treated here in “subtlety”, namely: the housing crisis.
She is never far away, but the crisis does not occupy all the space in the film either. Oddly enough, it is even rather joyful to watch. Which is rather well taken, when you follow the sad news on the subject, admit it. We laugh a lot, watching what we could call immersion in the dialogues between different potential roommates.
Because Cohabitthat’s it: a series of one-on-ones (two, three, or six!), where we converse about a potential cohabitation. What are you doing? What are you looking for? Who are you, finally? The conversations, judiciously edited to keep the rhythm, are reminiscent of job interviews (or the speed dating !). These range from the most superficial to the most intimate, including the political. Small moments of embarrassment included, all interspersed with selected images of various interiors, because trinkets and decoration sometimes also say a lot about our identities and personalities.
IMAGE FROM THE DOCUMENTARY, PROVIDED BY THE NFB
Decoration often says a lot about our personalities.
If some people like old French films, others collect Lego, appreciate Lebanese electro music, or scavenge food from trash cans (lobster the day after Christmas, anyway!), there’s no doubt that we definitely learn a lot about each other here. “I have hair under my armpits”, “I’m in a polyamorous relationship”, “I’m looking for someone neuroatypical”…
Take the time to meet
“What interested me was the subject of home, this idea of feeling good, safe,” continues the director, who “scoured” the classified ads on Facebook and attended meetings in about fifteen apartments with about fifty people in total, during almost two years of filming. It should be noted that some of these meetings lasted up to three hours. “My only condition: I wanted people who took the time [de se rencontrer]. But sometimes it was really very long!
IMAGE FROM THE DOCUMENTARY, PROVIDED BY THE NFB
The interviews follow one another and overlap with rhythm.
She wanted to represent Montreal, and she succeeded: think of the varied neighbourhoods (from Saint-Laurent to LaSalle, via the Centre-Sud and the Plateau Mont-Royal), diverse ethnic origins, multiple generations, diversity is here.
At first, Halima Elkhatabi thought she would explore the power struggle between landlords and tenants, but due to the housing crisis, she quickly realized that there was also a power struggle between roommates, as demand is so high. There are no landlords here, so the discussions only revolve around a possible sharing of accommodation.
But the discussions go beyond the housing crisis. […] It is much more about our relationships with others, our identity, our values, how we define ourselves.
Halima Elkhatabi, director
“And that’s the joy of the documentary, because it exceeded my expectations. Yes, I expected that these subjects would be talked about, but not so easily.”
Mental health, naturally
Speaking of being able to talk easily, the issue of mental health comes up very often, and naturally: I have anxiety, I have OCD, I am non-verbal when I am tired. “It’s a post-pandemic aspect, I think, there is a greater ease in talking about it. And then it’s a generational issue,” the majority of the tenants in question being in their twenties or thirties, a generation accustomed to revealing themselves on social networks, as we know.
“The real question of cohabitation is the question of living together in the true sense of the term, and it goes far, it’s a commitment,” concludes the director. “Knowing yourself, who you are, finding your place in the world, where you are, these are big questions that come up. How to live with others. […] There’s something very communal that comes out. And I think we need that.”
At the end of the day, Cohabit is enjoyed like a small Polaroid of an era. It is hard, moreover, not to come out of this viewing without wondering, wondering who we would live with. Or who would live with us…
In theaters from September 13 at the Cinémathèque québécoise and at the Beaubien cinema
Documentary
Cohabit
Halima Elkhatabi
1 h 15