ARTAFRICAFEATURE / CARTHAGE FILM FESTIVALCARTHAGE FILM FESTIVAL / IN CONVERSATION WITH ANNA ROUSSILLON 19/20
What is the significance of your film’s title, Je suis le Peuple (‘I am the People’)?
The title is a reference to a song by Oum Kalthoum that is heard in the film. It came out in the
60s and became a popular nationalist song during Nasser’s reign. It’s a song that came up when
the revolution began. For me, the idea of the film is to transform this affirmative title into a
question. The viewer is encouraged to ask to himself who the ‘people’ are and who they claim
to speak for, collectively.
The concept of ‘isolated involvement’ is rather interesting, being involved with something
while simultaneously being removed from it. Having grown up in Cairo and subsequently
moved to Paris, do you share many of the sentiments expressed by this family? What are
some of the similarities and differences between your context and theirs?
I certainly felt this ‘isolated involvement’ because, as you see in the film, I was in Egypt before
the revolution (the film actually starts before 25 January 2011), but I left to Paris just before
the explosion on the 28th of January, when everybody understood that something was going
on. I suddenly felt myself in the same place as Farraj. We were both watching the events, the
revolution, the occupation of Tahrir Square, on television, from remote places. I was in Paris
and he was in Luxor so neither of us were part of the events. What I wanted to do in the film
was to think from this position: how do we engage with the immensity of a revolution? It is very
interesting to observe because in Luxor life goes on. This is true for most of Egypt. We saw a
lot in the media about the people who participated in the demonstrations, however most of the
population were observing and reflecting on this from a distance. What happens with the people
who are not demonstrating, but are included by these events? It brings into question the entire
nature of authority and the political system. It is this that I saw working in the film, rather than
my place as strictly my own and his place as his own.