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Claire Denis presented WHITE MATERIAL at the 20th FICM

Omar Sosa Topete

As a continuation of the screenings in honor of the special guest of the 20th Morelia International Film Festival, Claire Denis, her film White Material (2009) was screened.

“It is a pleasure to welcome a filmmaker that we greatly admire, who is also, for me, one of the great filmmakers in the history of cinema,” said Daniela Michel, founder and general director of FICM.

The film tells the story of María, played by Isabelle Huppert, a woman dedicated to the cultivation of coffee. She is definitely a woman of strong character, so when a civil war is about to break out in the country, she doesn't hesitate to take care of her land and crops with everything she's got.

The screening was attended by Ava Cahen, Artistic Director of Cannes Critics' Week

Claire Denis at the 20th FICM

Daniel G. Hernández

Throughout her life, Claire Denis spent time in various African countries until she had to return to France. In 1987, she directed and wrote her first film Chocolat, awarded at Cannes in 1988; she also won the Golden Leopard and, in 1999, her film Beau Travail was released.

The director of the Morelia International Film Festival, Daniela Michel, praised filmmaker Claire Denis before the audience before the presentation of Beau Travail.

"Seeing a movie in a theater is such a moving experience," said Denis at the presentation of her film at the 20th Morelia International Film Festival (FICM).

Claire Denis
Claire Denis

The film exists thanks to Pierre Chevalier, who worked on a television channel. He was dedicated to making proposals for small-budget television movies with total freedom. The film was made in 1995, in France, a period in which there were several protests over the mistreatment of immigrants in the country. Chevalier suggested working on the theme of being foreigners to Claire Denis. With the freedom to work on the project, Claire thought of the foreign legion, specifically in Djibouti, a region where she spent her childhood.

Djibouti served as a training zone for the foreign legion, in which the conditions of the land and life were complicated since the people who enter the region lose their identity. After 15 years of living in a difficult way within the foreign legion, people could acquire French citizenship. People who flee their place of origin for all kinds of reasons live in the region looking for a second chance.

At the end of the screening, there was a Q&A session with the audience, which the director attended. There, she shared that the film was made in four weeks, two of them spent filming in Djibouti and the rest in Marseille.

In addition, Claire Denis mentioned that one of the actors was part of the Foreign Legion Army, and said that her relationship with the cast was very close because she worked with a small team, which allowed her to interact more personally with them.

 

Claire Denis

The French filmmaker, on the difficulties of making Beau Travail within the territory of Djibouti, said that the community thought that they were shooting scenes from a homosexual film; however, she decided to continue filming despite not having the support of the population and feared they would be attacked by those who came to see the process.

Finally, Denis explained that her narrative relies on images that speak without dialogue, adding that the film doesn't need to have so much of it. She also said that during the filming of Beau Travail she avoided scenes that captured the beauty of the landscape, as it could distract the viewer from the story.

“Cinema gives us the possibility of feeling something together”, Claire Denis concluded.