ARTAFRICAART AFRICA: Please tell us about the film you’re showing at JCC?
Anna Roussillon: The film is constructed a bit like a ‘contre-champ’ of what we saw during
the Egyptian Revolution of 2011. It’s a film that was shot over two and a half years in the
countryside in the South of Egypt, with the principal character, a peasant named Farraj, who
speaks about his relationship with the political events that took place very far away from him,
mainly on Tahrir Square in Cairo. It was shot as an opportunity to counterpoint the view of the
events as seen by the media.
You were born in Beirut and grew up in Cairo before moving to Paris. At what point did
you decide to go back to Egypt to shoot this documentary and did you know the family
in the film while growing up?
I have lived in Paris for the last fifteen years. I have always gone back to Egypt because my mother
still lives there. I met Farraj by chance in 2009, two years before the start of the revolution. We
became friends and I began to visit him when I could. At the time I was working on another
project in Luxor, a kind of film essay on mass tourism, which I dropped to make a film with
him about life in the village. Naturally, the film evolved because the revolution started. I decided
to stay in the village instead of going to Tahrir Square. The project exists only because of this
friendship with Farraj.
FEATURE / CARTHAGE FILM FESTIVALCARTHAGE FILM FESTIVAL / IN CONVERSATION WITH ANNA ROUSSILLON 17/20
Anna Roussillon, stills from Je Suis Le Peuple, 2014. Image: Anna Roussillon. Sound: Terence Meunier, Anna Roussillon. Edit:
Saskia Berthold and Chantal Piquet. Production: Narratio Films, Haut les mains Productions. Distribution: Docks 66. Duration: 1h51.
All images courtesy of Anna Roussillon.