When a friend suggested she read the novel Gold, by Icelandic Auður Ava Ólafsdóttir, Léa Pool did not take much time to comply. The filmmaker, admirer of the author’s work since Rosa Candida, perceived similar intentions and sensibilities in their respective works. “I immediately saw the possibility of making a film, in particular the second part of the book,” she explains.
Gold tells the story of Jonas, a fifty-year-old consumed by a lack of life, who flies to a country devastated by war with the aim of ending his life. Faced with the desolation of the place, the misery and the resilience of those who welcome him, Jonas has no other choice but to put his suffering into perspective. Allied in the reconstruction efforts, carried by overwhelming encounters, man will gradually begin a long return to the light.
As soon as the last page was turned, Léa Pool took out paper and pencil to convince the writer to entrust her with the rights to her book — a first for Ólafsdóttir. “I tried to explain to him why I was drawn to this story of mutual aid and rebirth, and by this character of a man endowed with great listening skills and extraordinary empathy. »
The director also highlighted the extent to which the story resonated with the themes of some of her films, notably Headlong (1988) and The woman from the hotel (1984). “I have always been interested in characters who are out of balance, who face events that force them to move and transform. I was also challenged by the message of hope, because our world is not doing well enough to get bogged down in distress. »
Léa Pool was able to be convincing, because the author immediately accepted her offer. “She said, ‘Go ahead and contact me if you have any questions along the way.’ Throughout the whole process, I felt like I was in the right place regarding his intentions. I had very few doubts. I only finally spoke to him again during sound post-production, when I started sending him a few clips, until the final file was sent. I was very nervous, but she loved it. »
Humanity above all
With Hotel Silence, the filmmaker has in fact remained very faithful to the spirit and sobriety of the novel, even if the adaptation required several changes. Thus, Jonas became Jean, and his native Iceland was replaced by Quebec. However, she chose to respect the fact that the foreign country where her hero goes remains anonymous. “After a war, the suffering of a people, whether in Africa, Palestine or elsewhere, is the same. I wanted to stay focused on my characters, because the war is not the point. The subject is how do we cope, how does someone manage to overcome this trauma? »
The settings of the fictional town were therefore recreated in Cerbère, a small village located in the south of France, on the border with Spain. “This village is completely neglected in the winter. There is only a grocery store, a bakery and a hotel that does not house anyone. During the Spanish Civil War, Republicans crossed it to escape Francoism. In the same way, Jews stayed there when the German occupation arrived in the south of France, before going to hide in the Pyrenees. Along the way, I discovered that my father, who is of Jewish origin, had taken refuge in this tiny village during World War II. Like everything is in everything. »
The performers who play the inhabitants of this unnamed country – including the Swiss Lorena Handschin and the Frenchman Jules Porier – all speak in French with a different accent to blur the lines. “I didn’t want us to be able to associate the actors’ language with a place. In the end, I chose to have the women’s choir sing in Catalan, a language that has no country. »
Léa Pool quickly knew that she wanted to entrust the character of Jean to Sébastien Ricard, an actor with whom she had never had the chance to work. “It was the perfect role for him. I knew that he had this interiority, this generosity and this quality of listening which allowed him to bring to life the silences, which are so important in this film. Then, he is beautiful. »
Reborn and rebuild
The actor, for his part, jumped into the project with both feet. “I wanted to work with this director at all costs. Then, I read the novel, and I was seduced by the character, by the tragic, human and slightly absurd nature of this story. The filming exceeded my expectations. I learned a lot about my job. We achieved the perfect balance between great preparation and abandonment, an openness to what happens on set and to create something greater. »
The actor had to juggle the interiority of a hero overcome by immense pain, who is expressed with very few words, and about whom the script reveals little. “It was a very right instinct on Léa’s part to put silence at the heart of the film. I rushed in and was surprised to discover this man who was reconnecting with an availability that he no longer believed was possible. It’s a character that got into me. »
AlthoughHotel Silence is above all a work of great gentleness about encounter and solidarity, attesting to the absence of hierarchy in suffering, it also testifies to the role of women in a context of conflicts, where the violence inflicted on them is considered as a weapon of war, and afterwards, where they act as builders.
“After a war, it’s the women who stay. They are the ones who have the duty to rebuild, to reproduce, to bring life back to the place. They are the ones who carry the memories and the pain. Even if the hero of the story is a man, I wanted to emphasize their importance. I think it enters into dialogue with the feminism present in Auður’s work,” concludes Léa Pool.
The film Hotel Silence hits theaters on March 29.