"The life she decided to lead could not lead her to come here", declared the general delegate of the Cannes Film Festival Thierry Frémaux before the screening of "Salam", co-directed by Diam's, Houda Benyamina and Anne Cissé, for explain the absence of the artist on the Croisette.
A video message from the singer was then broadcast, in which she justifies her choice to have wanted to "preserve this little cocoon, this simple life (that she has) today" and "wish everyone the best ( …) and to find this
salam
, this inner peace”.
" We love you !
shouted a spectator as the lights went out.
Among the 452 spectators present in the room this Thursday evening, there were many young people and a very large majority of girls.
“These are not the usual Festival spectators,” noted Karen, 19.
While many like Diam's music, like Juliette, a 31-year-old actress who "grew up with her songs", some, like Lena, were rather attracted by the subject of the film.
"I would be unable to quote a single title from Diam's: I came because I recently converted to Islam", whispers this 20-year-old Arabic student.
Many very moved spectators
At the end of a screening greeted by loud applause, many spectators said they were very moved.
“I had the impression that she was confiding in me,” assures Juliette.
"This film is all about peace, it's too beautiful, abounds his girlfriend Yasmina, a 23-year-old actress.
The documentary speaks to everyone, we can all identify with it.
Religion is not the question: it is about overcoming the blockages we have in our lives, about finding ourselves.
Diam's teaches a great lesson”.
"Yes, what matters is not that she converted, it's that she found happiness," agrees Juliette.
“We are rediscovering Diam's, also enthuses Léa, a 26-year-old clinical research associate.
I met her when I was 10 and there I understood how she went from deep depression to peace.
It made me cry…” “We didn't lose Diam's, rebounds Hippolène, a 20-year-old film student.
She decided to quit rapping, but she hasn't changed that much.
She has not lost her prose in any case”.
Her friend Hugo, 21, appreciated the "aesthetics" of this production and the way the lighting illustrates how the singer has "passed from shadow to light".
“I recognized myself”, confides Léna, a fan
Audrey, Dauphine and Hugo, 20 years old each and all business students, were touched by “the discourse on the star system”: “The film shows how destructive celebrity can be,” notes Dauphine.
"Diam's, which has been very violently criticized in the media, can finally tell the real story," says Audrey.
Léna found the plans with the dolphins or the reflections on the sea "sometimes kitsch" illustrating the way in which the singer learned to "contemplate creation", but she was overwhelmed by the story of Diam's conversion.
“I haven't stopped crying.
I recognized myself”, delivers the one who, in a period of her life when she was going badly, “found in Islam something which (the) appeases”.
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“It's important for a documentary to talk about Islam like that: it's a religion that's so frowned upon in France…” she says.
In "Salam", Diam's relatives
(his mother, the singer Vitaa or the writer Faïza Guène
) are filmed so that we only see the oval of their face, their hair, ears and their bodies being immersed in black.
"It's beautiful, it reminds the veil of Diam's", judge Juliette.
"It's part of the intimate side and it allows you to better focus on what people are saying," approves Dauphine.
As for the film's place at the Cannes Film Festival, the young spectators applaud it: “It's very coherent, considers Yasmina.
Here, it is the Festival of the universal, where there is the most diversity”.
