Where we come from, the first feature film by Montrealer Meryam Joobeur, will be in official competition during the 74e Berlinale next month. A new feat for this young director of Tunisian origin, four years after being nominated for an Oscar with her short film Brotherhood.
” It’s very cool. I am very moved. It’s the culmination of five years of work,” says the 32-year-old filmmaker, contacted from Paris where she is based to finish editing her film.
Where we come from, for which she also wrote the screenplay, was filmed in Tunisia with local actors. The film, which does not yet have a release date in Quebec, tells the story of a mother affected by the departure of her two eldest sons for Islamic jihad. The latter finds herself even more torn “between her maternal love and her need for truth” when one of them returns to the village on the arm of a mysterious woman.
A premise similar to that of his award-winning short film, Brotherhood, which also dealt with the return to his family of a Tunisian who had gone to fight with Daesh. “It’s not something that happened in my family, but these are stories I heard in Tunisia. It’s not specifically Islamism that fascinates me, it’s extremism. I am curious to know what flaws could have led someone to get to this point,” explains Meryam Joobeur.
Shades
The director explains that she tried not to take a Manichean look at radicalism. “It’s very easy to be binary when we talk about these issues. But I think that cinema is the right tool to deal with all the nuances of a complex situation. I ask a lot of questions in this film, but I don’t pretend to offer answers. So much the better if it sparks discussion,” adds Meryam Joobeur, switching from French to English.
The director was born in the United States, then spent the first years of her childhood in Tunisia, before returning to Uncle Sam’s country. A graduate in cinema at Concordia University, she has lived in Montreal for around ten years. years.
Meryam Joobeur can today boast of being among the rare directors who have seen their first feature film selected in official competition at one of the most prestigious film festivals in the world. The 74e Berlinale will take place in the German capital from February 15 to 25.
Where we come from is one of 20 films from around the world in the running for the Golden Bear. Also among the final selection is Black teathe new film by Mauritanian director Abderrahmane Sissako, who won the César for best film in 2015 for Timbuktu. The Frenchman Bruno Dumont (France, My Loute) is also in official competition with his feature film The Empirestarring Camille Cottin and Fabrice Luchini.
Out of competition, Christine Angot will present a preview of her first film, A family, a documentary mixing fiction and reality. The writer, who rose to fame with the best-seller Incest in 1999, will return to his meeting with the man who was his executioner, his father.
Qatar partner
Meryam Joobeur’s film is a co-production between Canada, France and Tunisia, among others. It was also financed by the Doha Film Institute, a Qatari backer. In the West, Qatar often has bad press, while this Persian Gulf monarchy is sometimes accused of supporting terrorist groups with its petrodollars.
That said, Meryam Joobeur assures that she benefited from total artistic freedom to make this film. “The Doha Film Institute also financed my latest short films. It was the first partner to support my film. They support a lot of films in the Arab world every year,” she stressed.