Halfway between documentary and fiction, Má Sài Gòn (Mother Saigon) is an unclassifiable film, anchored in reality, but deliberately impressionistic, a little curiosity to be taken as an invitation to travel, to meet others and diversity. Interview with its director Khoa Lê, whose journey is just as varied as his work.
“Me, I’m where there’s fun,” reacts spontaneously our interlocutor, recently met at the Cinéma Moderne, a filmmaker by trade, but also a restaurateur (Chez Denise), to whom we also owe the toy company erotic My Afterglo.
“Everything I do is part of a quest,” he explains more seriously, “a questioning of my relationship to the world, to myself and to the place I occupy. » The link between all his projects? “The human, always the human,” he replies without hesitation, with the accelerated flow that these people have who are passionate about their subject.
PHOTO FRANÇOIS ROY, THE PRESS
Khoa Lê, filmmaker
Cinema allows me to explore my relationship with my Vietnamese identity and my very multiple identities.
Khoa Lê, filmmaker
Identities that are relatively little represented in the media in general, and in cinema in particular, it should be noted.
In his film, which won the Special Jury Prize in the national feature film competition at the recent edition of the Montreal International Documentary Meetings (RIDM), Khoa Lê offers different fragments of life, intimate and varied portraits, ‘a series of Vietnamese characters, all based in Saigon. “In my own way, I try to bring our stories to the screen. The stories that concern my communities,” he says.
We sense from the outset a certain tension between tradition and modernity, or rather marginality, which is expressed both in clothing, ambient music and, of course, lifestyles. Here, a gay couple, there, a trans person, as well as a queer or non-binary person. The camera wanders from one group to another in often banal everyday moments (on a roof, on a train, sitting on the ground), while the protagonists discuss family, identity, love, without logical sequence or dramatic tension. . We are here in contemplative mode. Or let’s say “existence”: “they exist”, summarizes Khoa Lê effectively.
« Ce sont des humains qui me touchent, qui m’inspirent, qui me parlent », poursuit le réalisateur, qui a rencontré tous ses personnages en voyage au Viêtnam, il y a quelques années, pour un projet de fiction, lequel s’est métamorphosé en cette exploration qu’est Má Sài Gòn. « Je me suis lié d’amitié avec ces humains et j’ai eu envie de faire un film sur eux. » Une envie qui s’est « imposée » à lui, littéralement, telle une véritable « pulsion », « comme une nécessité », dit-il.
J’ai voulu capter leur beauté, leur lumière, leur résilience.
Khoa Lê, cinéaste
On devine pourquoi : « Chacun pose des questions que moi aussi je me pose sur ma place, ma famille, la tradition, ma quête d’amour, d’amitié, de connexion […] facing my motherland, my mother, this city and this country, this oppressive and comforting culture at the same time. »
PHOTO PROVIDED BY LES FILMS DU MARCH 3
Scene from the movie Má Sài Gòn (Mother Saigon)
The family place
You have to hear the protagonists ask this question repeatedly: “Your parents, what will they say? » Hence, moreover, this rare narration, which returns three times in the film, in the introduction, in the middle, then at the very end, recited like a poem to a mother: “If I were to be reborn one day, I would still like to be your son, if I were to be reborn one day, I would still like you to be my mother. »
“I love mothers,” continues Khoa Lê, “I made a film about grandmothers [Bà Nôi, grand-maman]I am very sensitive to mothers, they come to get me…”
We must understand that in Vietnam, the family occupies an immense place: “A very, very, very big place in lineage and traditions. » Consequence: “being gay, lesbian, or trans is not necessarily a danger, it is legal. You obviously experience a lot of discrimination, but where it’s really difficult is in the privacy and relationship with the family. » Basically: “You can be anything, but… have children!” »
If you’re wondering, no, Khoa Lê doesn’t have one. “It’s not an issue because I live in Quebec!” », Underlines the director, who arrived in the country at 7 years old with his parents.
“But I wanted to awaken all these existences. It’s not a quest for exoticism, he says. This is not a film that seeks to educate, but to raise awareness. To be moved. And, hopefully, to develop kindness. »
In theaters February 2