CDH: Le Bahreïn salue le rôle majeur du Maroc en matière de promotion des droits de l'Homme sur les plans national et international    M. Zniber souligne les efforts déployés par la présidence marocaine du CDH en vue de la réforme des statuts du Conseil    Sur Hautes Instructions du Roi, le Prince Héritier Moulay El Hassan reçoit à Casablanca le Président chinois    Bourita : L'approche Royale des droits de l'Homme s'appuie sur des fondements clairs et immuable    Conformité des lois: Seuls 19 recours adressés à la Cour constitutionnelle    Maroc 7,58 MDH d'amende pour Viatris, fusion entre Mylan et Pfizer    Maroc – Sénégal : Un Partenariat Stratégique vers un Hub Logistique Régional de Premier Plan    Achraf Fayda, nouveau directeur général de l'ONMT    Algérie : Boualem Sansal arrêté pour ses propos sur le Sahara oriental et le Polisario ?    Le général Changriha au gouvernement algérien: un pion visible pour masquer l'invisible ?    Achraf Hakimi prolonge son contrat avec le PSG jusqu'en 2029    Tanger : Trois ans de prison pour les quatre mineurs ayant harcelé une fille    Casablanca : Trois fils de familles bourgeoises arrêtés pour une affaire de viol    Etude: 39,4% des enfants en milieu rural ont du mal à aller à l'école    Achraf Hakimi extends PSG contract until 2029    Orange Maroc, partenaire d'une première mondiale dans la chirurgie à distance    À la croisée du dépassement de soi et de la promotion régionale    L'équipe du Maroc fait match nul avec l'Algérie 1-1    Une ouverture en fanfare    Nasser Shamma nous rend fiers d'être arabes et donc poètes    Le théâtre marocain, visions esthétiques et questions philosophiques    Algérie : Le commandant d'une région frontalière avec le Maroc nommé chef de l'armée de terre    Le Conseil supérieur des Oulémas tient sa 34è session ordinaire les 29 et 30 novembre à Rabat    Système d'aides sociales : les critères d'éligibilité sont-ils devenus fous ?    Deux morts dans le crash d'un avion d'entrainement à Benslimane    Ajman: Le Maroc en tête du classement du Championnat arabe de golf    Glory Collision 7 : Abderrahman Barkouch relève le défi    Crimes de guerre à Gaza : La CPI émet un mandat d'arrêt contre Benjamin Netanyahu    France : Une radio fermée suite à un « incident diplomatique » avec un député marocain    Le Conseil de gouvernement adopte un projet de loi relatif à la protection du patrimoine    Préparation. CAN (F) Maroc 25 / Les Lionnes face à deux sparring-partners    Qualifs. CDM 26. Asie / La Palestine, surprenante ! Le crash de Qatar aux EAU !    Comme en 2023, l'Algérie préoccupée par les contacts entre le Maroc et l'Iran    Innovation : BMCE Capital Bourse lance l'application BK Bourse avec le soutien de SIX    Sahara : Le plan d'autonomie repose sur le dialogue, le droit international et l'intérêt des populations, selon le parti au pouvoir au Brésil    CAF Awards 2024: Le Maroc présent en force dans les nominations féminines    Viande importée : La distribution "limitée" freine la baisse des prix    Mise en avant du rôle du Maroc dans le renforcement de la souveraineté sanitaire africaine    Les températures attendues ce jeudi 21 novembre 2024    Le temps qu'il fera ce jeudi 21 novembre 2024    Le CESE préconise l'instauration d'un système obligatoire unifié entre les régimes d'assurance maladie    Upfund lève 1,2 million d'euros auprès de Bpifrance, CDG Invest et MNF Ventures    Mohamed Ould Errachid reçoit la présidente de l'Assemblée nationale de la République de Serbie    Discours du président Xi Jinping au Sommet du G20 : Vers une gouvernance mondiale renforcée et un partenariat international    Somalie: plus de 420.000 déplacés internes en 10 mois, selon le HCR    Censure : le régime algérien accuse Kamel Daoud d'avoir dit la vérité sur la « décennie noire »    Rachid Benzine lauréat du «Grand Prix du Roman Métis»    Trois nouvelles salles Cinerji : le CCM investit 12 millions de dirhams pour relancer le cinéma marocain    







Merci d'avoir signalé!
Cette image sera automatiquement bloquée après qu'elle soit signalée par plusieurs personnes.



Diaspo #320 : Exploring the capacity of cinema to innovate collective experiences
Publié dans Yabiladi le 07 - 01 - 2024

Born in Casablanca to a family from Tangier, filmmaker Leila Kilani studied history and economics in Paris before embarking on a career in film. A graduate of the Ecole des hautes études en sciences sociales (EHSS), she discovered her cinematic calling through the need to question her society, beyond the foreign-grafted media discourse.
Regarding her hometown of Casablanca, Leïla Kilani remembers the 1970s and 1980s, during which the culture of images in public spaces was rarely highlighted, when it was not outright banned. The movie director, who likes to define herself as «Moroccan-Parisian», tells Yabiladi that «the years of lead were accompanied by many prohibitions, including that of filming in the streets».
Hence, «going to the cinema or simply watching a film has always been a sacred ritual», with the political environment of those decades always in the background. «Love of cinema was so precious and marked by this rarity that these moments were precious and interesting to experience», the director of the film «Indivision», her second fiction feature film, told Yabiladi. She addresses crucial themes linked to climate justice, coexistence between communities and the urge of preserving the environment.
A pupil of French schools, Leïla Kilani grew up with two brothers and a sister, in a family from Tangier, where the story of her new cinematographic opus takes place. Her father was a civil servant, the head of a family that had a strong commitment to politics.
«All of this has marked me intellectually», declares the filmmaker who, in addition to the rare images, has always «devoured books» which she could get her hands on. «I was always under the impression that there was never enough to quench my thirst for reading», underlines the woman who has long been passionate about the writings of Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Toni Morrison and Georges Perec.
Leïla Kilani is a filmmaker who is not interested in telling stories in a traditional way. She wants to create new worlds and experiences through her films. She believes that films should be more than just entertainment. They should also be a way to think about important issues. It is for this reason that Leïla Kilani is considering bringing her new feature film «Indivision», in partnership with the Moroccan Coalition for Climate Justice, to movie theaters in Morocco.
The idea will be to welcome new actors within the cinematographic synergy, especially those who question and work around climate issues. After a first national screening at the 20th Marrakech International Film Festival (FIFM, from November 24 to December 2, 2023), the objective will be to «attract the public, both as film buffs and citizens sensitive to the ecological issue».
The story takes place over the hills of Tangier, in the center of the forest where a dilapidated house stands: La Mansouria. Lina lives there with her father Anis, her grandmother Amina, and the housekeeper. The grandmother pushes her relatives to accept a deal to sell the property and become millionaires. But Anis, steadfast in his refusal to sell to property developers, even renounces his own stake in the land and donates it, for eternity, to birds, which fascinate him so much. Unfortunately, a fire ravages the forest, signaling the start of a series of events that question the role of humans within their environment.
«In Morocco, the film was well-received by the younger audience, mostly relating to the role of Lina. We thought of extending this experience, by launching debates. The idea would be to do in-depth work, beyond the film, in the form of a symbolic trial. The idea came after the screening of the film. We want to accompany the feature film, locally, by creating a space for debate. We had the idea of a distribution strategy, with an associative partnership, to invest in something that brings both love of cinema and citizen debate».
Leïla Kilani
Creating debate beyond media discourse
Before going behind the camera, Leïla Kilani pursued higher education in France in history and economics. Her master's degree at the School of Advanced Studies in Social Sciences (EHSS) in France, then her master's of research degree in Cairo, Eypt, was «a founding moment» for the rest of her career.
She emerged enriched by this academic experience, which led her to travel all the way to Asia, from Egypt to China, along the Silk Road. «This trip made me rediscover my Arabness, in particular thanks to the research I carried out on the literature of the 1930s», the director said.
She remembers it as a «founding step towards belonging to an Arab cultural world, with a relationship to a city where borders are only those that we impose on ourselves».
«Fundamentally marked» by her travels which lasted four years, Leïla Kilani discovered «freedom and happiness through her everyday life, in a heterogeneous and hybrid world». During her studies, Leïla Kilani also wrote articles as a freelance journalist.
Being from Tangier, the director kept an alternative view of the irregular migration phenomenon in the early 1990s. She declares being «very angry at media coverage of this subject», with a Western media discourse detached from reality and local societal complexities.
It was then that she decided to take a camera, to make what would become her first documentary, «Tanger, the dream of the burners» (2002). «I was already taking a lot of photos, images and sounds in this city. So, I wanted to write an uncompromising film. I sent it to the CNC in France, I received funds and I attempted an innocent, unconscious and ambitious opus, beyond the journalistic tone», she recalls.
«Around me, few believed in the possibility for me to move on to directing and make this first film. But I finally did it and since then, I have continued to have a visceral relationship with writing for images. I have kept this same intuitive stubbornness since my youth. Each film is my first time behind the camera and I don't like to repeat what I've already done».
Leïla Kilani
After a second documentary ('Our forbidden places', 2008), the director attempted the adventure of fiction for the first time, through her feature film «Sur la planche» (2011). Each time, she develops «an experimental vision of cinema, as a test tube». An approach that we also find in «Indivision».
«It is a childish relationship with the seventh art as a source of wonder and questioning, with the need for it to be a sandbox which serves to propose an aesthetic form, with the promise of being constantly in a process between creation and research», the director tells us.
«I don't believe in an ideologization of cinema that would turn into a leaflet. As a spectator before becoming a director, I find that the films that have had an impact on me are those where poetry tells, in one way or another, a relationship to oneself and to the world. That's always political. I think that commitment, in this way, means daring and freeing yourself, trying things and innovating in aesthetic forms».
Leïla Kilani
Today, Leïla Kilani rightly believes that «we make films about ourselves». «My films tell my stories. They tell of my distress, my hopes. I am trying to find a cinematographic translation to all this, while also describing a certain Moroccan orality», indicates the woman who has always put her favorite city, Tangier, at the heart of her colorful stories.
«There are cities that contain you, belong to you and transcend you. For me, it is Tangier, towards which I have an intense love relationship. I try to put my camera elsewhere; I wrote 'Indivision' to try it in Rabat, just for a change. But Tangier ended up catching up with me. So much the better, because it is an aesthetic city which has such intensity and a world-city cinematography that it is difficult to find elsewhere, to question the physical, graphic and cinematographic relationship at the border», underlines the director.


Cliquez ici pour lire l'article depuis sa source.