“It took me a long time to tell about my own Algeria”

Alexandre Arcady is a French director born in Algiers, at a time when France and Algeria were one. His movies, The Sirocco Shot (1979) and The Great Forgiveness (1989) with Roger Hanin in particular were acclaimed by Algerian and French audiences, underlining at the same time the importance he had of telling the story of Algeria as he knew it in his childhood.

Wednesday November 15, 2023, his new feature film is released: The Little Blond of the Casbah with Marie Gillain, Françoise Fabian, Michel Boujenah, adapted from his autobiography of the same name, released by Plon in 2003, and reissued for the occasion, increased by around fifty pages. This feature film portrays the story of a film director who, accompanied by his son, returns to Algiers to present his new film recounting his childhood in Algeria in the 1960s.

franceinfo: The film starts on an important day in your life. While you attended the screening of the film Forbidden Games by René Clément, there was a bombing in Algeria. Why did it take so much time, ultimately, to create this film, to make it?

Alexandre Arcady: In the film, there is a scene that I tell, it is our departure from Algiers. I was 13 years old and on the boat, my mother turned to us, there were five boys and my father, saying: I forgot the photos in the kitchen buffet and I heard myself say to her: I I’ll bring them back, mom. And the day I was, I was going to say, “old enough” to start making cinema, I made The sirocco blow, because I wanted to bring back his photos. That was it. I took refuge behind authors to talk about Algeria. Perhaps because it was not yet time for me to tell about my own Algeria. It took me a while. Perhaps the birth of my grandchildren, this desire to pass on a past, which is a past that is both carefree, illuminated by sunshine and pleasure despite the war.

The Sirocco Shot spoke of your departure on the liner which took you far from Algiers. What place does Algeria occupy in your life as a man?

“This Algeria occupies a strong place because I am rooted in this land. I am an Algerian, I am an African by birth and I care about it. It is this kind of back and forth between this luminous past and this reality for many years in France.”

Alexandre Arcady

at franceinfo

There are nods to the times and the rejection of others within this film. France and Algeria that General de Gaulle said “were sisters”, that’s also what it’s about. The war is always in the background. Did the fear you had of dying ultimately play an essential role in your life as a man?

The fear of dying, yes, at times, but it was coupled with a form of carelessness. I remember, I was with friends eating ice cream, Place du Government in Algiers and all of a sudden, there was a burst of machine guns. But our concern was not so much the bullets flying over our heads, but rather not knocking over the ice cream cone and continuing. This is also childhood through a historical movement that swept away many people. I was afraid of it, but not that much.

You were very mature, very young. Where does this maturity come from?

It’s true that I very quickly had the notion of time. It’s still strange to have the notion of time at the age of ten. These are quite strange feelings, also linked to the fact that I met a wonderful young woman called Josette. She was my neighbor, older than me and who introduced me to everything. It was she who took me to the cinema for the first time, who made me listen to Brassens’ first songs. There you go, she was a kind of mentor like that and she pushed me a little, because my mother had other things to do with five boys than make me listen to Brassens or take me to the cinema.

You left this nest, this cocoon where you had all your friends in 1961. Your family went into exile in mainland France. You have landed in the town of Balzac in Vitry-sur-Seine. How did you experience this uprooting?

I was happy to come to Paris, because of Paris, I only knew the few images that we saw on television in black and white, that is to say the Moulin Rouge which was filming. I didn’t know it was red since we saw it in black and white. The Eiffel Tower, all that. Finally, what an adventure! It was hard, because no one expected us, no one really helped us and it was much harder than in Algeria. Frankly, in Paris, we experienced hunger at that time. Besides, it’s funny to me to be here, in the Maison de la radio because the first job my father had was as an attendant at the Maison de la radio, which had just opened. Earlier, when I arrived, I thought about that, I said to myself: it’s still disturbing to talk about this film in this House.

You say you wanted to understand who you were through this film. So who are you?

“I am an attentive citizen because my films have often spoken of the delicate situation of the moment, I think of ‘The Sacred Union’, more than 30 years ago, with which I evoked this rise of Islamism radical and bloodthirsty. Unfortunately, we are right in the middle of it.”

Alexandre Arcady

at franceinfo

I am also a fulfilled director, because I have managed to make many films on such different subjects. There you go, I am happy to have been able to make all these films thanks to the public who followed me and I am a fulfilled man because I have magnificent children and today extraordinary grandchildren.

Watch this interview on video: