Trailer for the movie "Mother Gloria"/Lev Cinema
The French Mary Amascoli is an award-winning director, and in addition to all the cinematic decorations, she also boasts another title - she is probably one of the only filmmakers in Europe who worked in archaeological excavations in Israel.
"I was an archaeologist before I turned to the big screen, and in that context I also participated in excavations in France, and learned Hebrew," she surprises me during an interview that takes place in Paris, her city of residence.
"In the end, archeology and cinema are the same profession - you dig and dig and look for something that you know exists, but you don't know exactly where it is hiding. Like cinema, archeology is also an art full of emotions: what is more exciting than discovering a statue that no one has seen for a century ?".
Amaskuli is French, whose family is of Georgian origin.
After the professional conversion, she directed together with Claire Borges and Samuel Theiss an exciting film called "Party Girl", which won the Golden Camera award for debut film at the Cannes Film Festival about a decade ago.
This year, for the first time, she directed a feature film by herself - "Mother Gloria", which had its premiere in Ribeira as well and won, among other things, the international competition at the last Jerusalem Film Festival.
"I was very proud, what's more, the chairman of the jury was the director Claire Denis, whose film 'Chocolate' influenced me", she says about this.
Based on her personal story, Amashkouli follows here the relationship between a white Parisian girl named Chloe, who develops a warm bond With her nanny, Gloria, a black immigrant from Cape Verde, who, before her final return to her homeland, takes the girl to her for one last time together.
Winner of the international competition at the Jerusalem Festival.
From "Mother Gloria"/Lev Cinema
"I also grew up in similar circumstances," says the director.
"I was raised by a woman who was not exactly my nanny, but the concierge of the entire building. I was with her all the time, in her living unit, by her children's side. One day she returned to live in her homeland, Portugal, and that was the biggest market of my childhood. I wanted to use In this film to explore my absolute and crazy love for her, and the relationship between the nanny and the children she takes care of."
What do you think is interesting about this relationship?
"There is a very interesting triangle here, full of topics that are considered taboo in our society. Often, the children like the nanny more than their mother, but they will never say out loud 'Mom, I love this woman more than you because she takes care of me better The mothers, for their part, suppress the fact that someone left her whole life behind for this job. After all, the nanny left her own children to take care of someone else's children. It's a terrible thing when you think about it, and who wants to think about it?"
"Go to a park in Paris, and you will see thousands of women who take care of the children of the bourgeoisie. These are women who come from all over the world, and no one talks about them - neither about them nor about their families. They are transparent. These are women who are with our children, in our homes, at the heart of our intimacy. These The closest strangers."
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From archaeological works in Safed to the Cannes Film Festival.
Director Mary Amascoli/GettyImages, Tristan Fewings
Your nanny was from Portugal.
Why did you choose the therapist in the film to be a black woman from Cape Verde?
"I wrote the script before I cast and before I had an actress in mind. I like working with non-professional actresses and I met with nannies who came from different countries. Then I met Ilsa Moreno-Zago, who came to France from Cape Verde. She impressed me so I chose her and changed the location following her. It was complicated to film in Cape Verde during the corona virus.
"Every time a film with a black heroine comes out, they say it's a political choice, progressive, WOKE and the like.
All these settings are out of place.
We simply present on the screen characters that exist in reality, what is political or progressive about that?
There was a time when magazines refused to put black people on the cover, because they said it hurt sales.
There is always an excuse, but at some point a change has to be made."
Not progressive, realistic.
From "Mother Gloria"/Lev Cinema
Why did you decide that the girl in the film should wear glasses?
"Because I myself was short-sighted, and because I wanted to say something about the ways in which we see the world. Besides, the glasses helped the actress Louise Mauroy-Panzani, who plays the heroine. When she put the glasses on, she felt like the heroine, and when she took them off, she was back to being herself".
Your movies are always exciting.
That was true for "Party Girl" and it's even more true this time.
"Yes, I'm very melodramatic, even in France they don't like it. In France the approach is more intellectual, and I'm not like that. My inspiration is Italian melodramas."
More on the same topic:
Archaeology
Cannes Film Festival
babysitters