Breakfast with Yúl et le serpent

Interview with Gabriel Harel, director of Yúl et le serpent (Yúl and the Snake)

Where did the idea for Yúl and the Snake come from?

Yul and the Snake was inspired by my childhood growing up in the Southern Alps region. The story is not directly based on something I experienced. It’s more of an atmosphere: youth pretending to be criminals, drugs, pitbulls, techno music, and not a single girl in sight…

It’s mostly inspired by the relationships between these youths. I grew up with friends who I consider like brothers. We were always together. When I moved away, I began having violent nightmares. In my dreams, the friends were there alongside fantastic psychedelic creatures.

The film is inspired by these nightmares and the relationships among youth of different ages: people in their 20’s, their 16-year-old brothers and 13-14 year olds who start imitating the same foolishness as their older brothers.

Why did you choose the name Yul?

When I started writing, I imagined the two brothers being gypsies. In my village, some families had gypsy connections and a group of gypsies came through every summer. Yul is excluded, then humiliated. I thought, « who are the most excluded and humiliated people that I know of? » : the gypsies.

Much later I learned that Yul Brynner played The Serpent.  A magnificent, perhaps unconscious, but very fitting choice.

Why did you choose a snake as the travelling companion for Yúl?

The snake appeared to me while tripping on LSD at a techno rave when I was 19.  It stayed with me, and I had nightmares about it.  The snake is always present in shaman rituals.  I don’t know that shamanic aspect well, but I personally felt the effects of the snake which appeared as a malevolent guide, warning of death or danger.

So, beyond these symbolic, uncontrolled, psychedelic references, I chose the snake because it is a fascinating animal that inspires evil.  It’s scary.  The snake helps Yul to overcome his fear, but it pushes him to take revenge, and it guides him in his anger and violence.  It pushes him to kill Mike.  And somehow, the snake helps Yul to save his brother, but it pushes him into a violent rage.

That’s why I chose a snake, not a big cat.  Or a beautiful horse.

Could you have made the same film as a live-action shot with real actors?  Why did you choose animation and drawings?

One thing is certain.  I would not have made the same film.  The question should not be asked in that way.  Would you ask a painter if he would have preferred to do an installation instead of a paining ?  I have been drawing for a long time.  I imagined this story as an animation film, not a live-action one.

Why did you choose a setting that is very white, a bit gray, but with very few colors?

The black and white is meant to dramatize.  The colors of the landscapes were not the subject of the film.  The snake’s colors were to give a fantastic and psychedelic aspect.

We don’t see adults in Yúl and the Snake.  Where do you think they are?

But there is an adult.  Mike is an adult, he’s over 25 years old.  It’s a very important social theme for me.  I conceived of three male characters:

– the younger brother: Yúl, 13 years old

– the older brother: Dino, 17 years old

– the adult : Mike, 25 to 30 years old.

The younger brother takes the example of his older brother, who in turn takes the example of Mike.  Mike stayed in the village.  He’s unemployed, since there is little or no work for young people in the village.  So he does petty crime and hangs out with teenagers.  The young people imitate him as a way of growing up.

It’s a phenomenon that I have observed and gone through with some of the youth in my village.

Do you think the short film would be a good tool for examining people’s relationships? And macro social units?

I am not sure I understand this question.  Why would it not be?

Yúl and the Snake was either produced, co-produced or self-financed with French funds. Did you write the film with this “French” aspect in mind: making movie references, building a specific context (in a particular region, for example) or inserting characteristically French notions?

Since the film is inspired by my growing up in the Southern Alps region, I suppose it is full of cultural codes and French references and expressions.  It’s a story that takes place in France with the youths of the region (French actors), so yes, it’s a French context.  But if the film starts in this specific context (rural, South of France), it evokes more universal subjects like the connection between two young brothers, outdoing oneself, getting beyond one’s fear through anger and violence…

The film Yúl and the Snake will have upcoming screenings at:

GLAS Animation Festival (California)

Aubagne Film Festival

Ciné-Jeune de l’Aisne Festival

Landshut Short Film Festival

GO SHORT Film Festival

Stuttgart Festival of Animated

International Film Festival of Lanzarote

Lille European Cinema Festival

Chile Monos festival

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Yúl and the Snake is being shown in national competition F9 and school programme.