Breakfast with Souvenir inoubliable d’un ami [Unforgettable Memory of a Friend]
Interview with Wissam Charaf, director of Souvenir inoubliable d’un ami [Unforgettable Memory of a Friend]
Can you tell us a little bit about the development of Souvenir inoubliable d’un ami?
I was more interested in the memories that came back to me than in filming childhood per se. As it happens, the memories in question, which were quite uncomfortable and did no one any credit, were tied to my preteen years. I think those things come with age, when some forgotten events or events you’ve chosen to erase crop up again. Perhaps you’ve distanced yourself enough that certain filters and barriers disintegrate with time, so you are able to sit back and contemplate what your past, your childhood and especially your first contact with others were, without interference from parents and teachers. It’s like a bit of an adult world that develops while we’re still young, with elements that resemble those of the adult world: feelings of love, but also corruption, moral values, the desire to be successful, to pull yourself up, to achieve your ends by any means necessary, to be the best, to look good. Small battles, small victories, small defeats… And it’s not a reflection on childhood in general, because the backdrop is a country at war, where traditional moral values have crumbled, where fear has taken control. What is it like to grow up and mature, to find your bearings in that kind of society? To my mind, this situation warranted having a film dedicated to it. The writing phase of the project was actually very quick, unlike with my other films, in large part because I started from memories and not from fictional events. After two mornings in Beirut, sitting in a cafe at the seaside, the script was there, or at least the foundations had been laid.
How did you bring Ralph Hilali in to play Chadi?
Ralph had never acted before, but I wasn’t put off by that since I generally give lots of physical direction (on movements, body positions, intonation, speed of delivery) and very rarely any psychological direction. Theoretically, anyone could act in my films. But there’s also the fact that at castings calls, beyond physical appearance, I can quickly identify someone who, as it were, speaks my language, who understands my directions, versus someone where there’s no connection. Ralph simply acted naturally, and he matched my vision of the character: a tough person in a child’s body. I didn’t have to explain too much about the character; I didn’t want him to develop, or try to develop, a role or an idea of the character that he erroneously but in good faith thought was what I was looking for. So on the set, I talked to him constantly during the scenes. I told him to turn his head, lower his eyes, look this way or that. That reassured him and guided him. Moreover, I had the luxury of rehearsing the scenes in Beirut long before shooting, so the children knew the scenes by heart. But once they were in front of the camera, when we were shooting, I had to add precise directions about movements and glances – the lace, as I call it. The sound editor was probably gritting his teeth the whole time he heard my voice on the takes. But I know he doesn’t hold a grudge.
Chadi is caught between his desire to study and his father’s orders, which push him to conform to male stereotypes of brutality and virility. Why did you want to film this questioning of the construction of male identity?
Constructing male identity during wartime is not an easy thing to do. Parents especially have a moral dilemma about what values they should inculcate in their children. Do they teach them to be honest people and run the risk of them being slaughtered in a country at war? Or do they teach them to be crafty, to steal, to strike, to defend themselves with what they have, do they teach them how to “survive”? Or both at once? I think our own parents faced this dilemma when they had to transmit values to us as we were growing up in the midst of a civil war. When a young kid sees older kids with guns, power, charisma, what can you say to prevent them from imitating these people who seem like superheroes but are more often hardened criminals? Inevitably, parents are at a loss, they’re stunned, which is how I portray them in the film. The mother is completely crushed, she simply cannot process what’s happening to her or her country. And the father flips back and forth between his weak authority and his desire to meaningfully educate his son, piling up contradictions in everything he says.
This is your fifth short film. Do you think short films as a genre are gaining in profile?
You can make a name for yourself through short films, but it’s a pretty slow process. Short films as a genre are seen only at festivals and on very late-night tv. But there are more and more short film festivals which is obviously a good thing. When I made my first short, in 2003, some theaters in Paris still showed shorts before the feature films, but now that’s almost completely over, which is a real shame. And I’m only talking about France. For the rest of the world, shorts are kept truly under wraps. Now, with VOD, the web and so on, they probably have a higher profile. But I think decision-makers don’t watch enough of the short films made by filmmakers whose features they’re considering, and they often neglect some very good films.
Have you discovered any advantages that the short film form provides?
Definitely the ability to make a film in less time than it takes to make a feature film. A filmmaker who’s not working on a film is like a plane that’s not flying – a very sad thing. I feel as though committees are more willing to accept certain things in shorts because they’re traditionally more geared toward experimentation. I don’t mean that you can do anything you want in a short and hope to get financing, but materially, you need to find smaller sums of money, and since there is less money involved, backers are perhaps less demanding about knowing where the money is going, and especially about whether they’re going to see a return on it some day. At the same time, I don’t decide to take liberties when I’m writing a short and not when I’m writing a feature. I write in the same way, i.e. I write exactly what I would like to see on screen, hoping very much that I am not writing a script that will never make it on screen.
Souvenir inoubliable d’un ami is part of National Competition F10.
