Wednesday evening was held at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) the world premiere of Ru, directed by Charles-Olivier Michaud, based on the autobiographical best-seller by Kim Thúy. In the packed house of the magnificent Royal Alexandra Theatre, a spontaneous and sustained ovation greeted the arrival of the end credits. People literally jumped out of their seats, many with wet eyes and happy smiles. The next day, we meet Kim Thúy, still electrified by this reaction from the public. Interestingly, her own reaction to the film was also physical, but very different, as the author confides.
“When I saw the zero copy, the final version of the film, I had a narcoleptic attack,” says Kim Thúy during a tête-à-tête on one of the sofas of the brand new café-bar Varda, located on the third floor of the TIFF Bell Lightbox complex.
“It must have been 20 years since I had an episode like this. I fell asleep, but not a normal sleep: a heavy sleep, which crushes you. Every time I tried to wake up, I saw a piece of the scene, and I fell back. However, I had seen the rushes and different preliminary montages… It’s as if, in front of the film, in front of the images, my body had made a shutdown. »
A defense mechanism? “I always say that I have no trauma, that it’s behind me, that it’s resolved… But, clearly, my body reacted. »
The evocative power of cinema, undoubtedly.
For those who have still not read the beloved Governor General’s Award-winning story, we follow young Tinh, the author’s alter ego, and her family. After fleeing communist Vietnam by sea in 1975 in atrocious conditions, the clan, arriving in Quebec as part of a vast migratory movement, was welcomed with open arms by the population of Granby.
Even if everything goes well there, Tinh continues to be haunted by the journey and by the events that occurred just before.
“It took me years to be able to tell this story. I don’t think I have the natural talent to write: everything I say, I have seen it. There is nothing imaginary. »
To this we will counter that the talent of Kim Thúy, very real, and immense, in this case, lies precisely in his ability to translate into words, into striking descriptions, everything recorded by his rather incredible sense of observation.
Know how to observe
On this subject, in an interview given to Duty the same day and which will appear ahead of the film’s release in November, Charles-Olivier Michaud explains that he was fascinated by this precise characteristic. According to him, Kim Thúy has a gift. Which consists of being both at the heart of a situation or a conversation with people and at a distance, one step removed mentally.
“It’s funny: it’s the first thing my chum said to me when we met,” says the main interested party with a laugh.
“I didn’t know I was doing that, but it’s true, it’s absolutely true. I am inside and outside: I capture a lot of detail, but I am very present nonetheless. My five senses are always activated. »
This invisible, intangible phenomenon became a guideline for the filmmaker in his way of approaching and especially filming the protagonist. Thus Tinh is often placed in the very center of the composition, and the rest of the universe then moves around her. We also like to take a close-up of her at the end of the frame, with the rest of the world behind her, which she contemplates in the background…
“I don’t have the impression that Chloe [Djandji, qui incarne Tinh] was conscious of carrying the film and that the camera was at this point on her face,” notes Kim Thúy, who knew straight away that the young, non-professional actress was the dream candidate.
“As soon as I saw the video of her audition, I said, ‘That’s her! It’s her ! It’s her !” She had it, in the first second. I was hypnotized. I went back to those few minutes of hearing a thousand times. It was almost too good to be true. Like love at first sight. »
The impulse to tell oneself
Contrary to what one might think, immigration and integration act more as a backdrop. The main subject is really Tinh’s awakening in relation to who she has been, and in relation to who she now wishes to be.
Art, which here takes the form of reading and writing, acts as an outlet and as an emancipatory tool. “Completely,” says Kim Thúy.
Moreover, when asked what pushed her to write, the author uses the metaphor of a door opening. “I wanted to write for the first time at 14, when I read The lover, by Marguerite Duras, when I did not yet understand French very well. I had been in Quebec for five years. And Duras gave me permission to see Vietnam as something other than war. It was also a romanticized and romanticized Vietnam. We were so immersed in this war and the chaos of the regime transition that we had forgotten that. Duras opened a door in me, and the light that entered through it somewhat dissipated the darkness of what we had experienced. But, yes, the first desire to write was Duras. »
This “desire to write” transformed into a personal style that Kim Thúy feared would not be conducive to a cinematographic adaptation.
“When I met Charles-Olivier, I was obsessed with the idea of a quest, because I had been told that in a film, the character had to have a quest. But immediately, Charles-Olivier got rid of that. He told me: “You didn’t have a quest: you observed, you learned, you absorbed, and that’s it.” »
And that was enough.
Disbelief, tears and beauty
The filmmaker’s vision pleased Kim Thúy, who immediately felt confident. A confidence that helped him during his many moments of doubt. In fact, for a long time, Kim Thúy did not believe that the film would be made.
“Even during filming, I saw Charles-Olivier filming a scene in the apartment setting, or in the camp setting… It was fascinating, but it was disparate, like a puzzle not yet assembled, and I wondered how Charles-Olivier would manage to make a film from all these pieces. But he got there. He got there so well…”
To continue the author after a silence: “With Charles, we connected. He understood me immediately, from the inside out. I see the movie, and it’s like he got into my head and looked at the world through my eyes then. But with his own part of interpretation, his own sensitivity. He recombined the pieces. Except that it’s the same emotion as in the book, the same message. »
In this regard, we will understand that Kim Thúy finally managed to see the film without an attack of narcolepsy. His reaction to the second attempt?
“I cried all the way through. It is so beautiful. I told Charles-Olivier not to cling to my story; to go as far as he could and wanted in his own art, in cinema. And he did it. »
The film Ru will be on display on November 24. François Lévesque is in Toronto thanks to the financial support of Telefilm Canada.