Eric Barbier, director of "The Promise of the Dawn" with Pierre Niney, signs the film adaptation of "Petit Pays", the successful novel by Gaël Faye published by Grasset in 2016 (Prix Goncourt des lycéens).
In the 90s, Gabriel, a boy aged about ten, lives in Burundi with his father, a French entrepreneur (played by Jean-Paul Rouve), his Rwandan mother Yvonne (played by Isabelle Kabano, muse of cinema Rwandan), and his little sister Ana. Gabriel spends his time doing the four hundred knocks with his classmates until civil war breaks out, ending his childhood innocence.
>>> History through the eyes of childhood
When reading Gaël Faye's novel, the character of Gabriel particularly struck the director. "It is not in the character of the father, who is white and French, that I find myself the most but in that of the child. Because I find in him part of my childhood. Where I come from , a small village in the South of France, my childhood was a bit like Gaby's. My parents left me very free. From the age of 8, I was in the street, let loose in nature ", says Eric Barbier.
For the character of Gaby, the hero of the film, several catastrophes overlap: the separation from his parents, the civil war in Burundi and the genocide of the Tutsis in Rwanda. "It was the strength of the novel and I hope that of the film," says Eric Barbier. "We discover the events through Gaby's eyes. Like many children of around ten, Gabriel does not understand all the issues or the dramas that are playing out around him. He perceives fragmentary elements of the situations and events. He does not understand everything, many things remain confused and chaotic. For him, everything happens as if there is a secret connection between the intimate explosion of the family unit and the historical explosion that is happening around him at this moment".
>>> Author Gaël Faye co-signs the screenplay for the film with Eric Barbier
Gaël Faye's novel met with both critical and public success when it was published in 2016. Its author co-signs the adaptation of his own novel for the cinema. "The Promise of the Dawn is one of the reasons that convinced me to work with Eric. When I saw this film, I told myself that he knew how to film childhood and the relationship between a mother and her son. . It's something that is not obvious and I found that it was very powerful in the film ", explains Gaël Faye.
The author even contributed very closely to the film adaptation of the work, guiding the director during the production. "Gaël read all the versions of the script, he followed all the stages of the editing", specifies the director Eric Barbier. "Each time, he gave me the tools to understand his book as closely as possible. Gaël was a constant and indispensable interlocutor. If he had decided not to get involved in the film, it would have been much more complicated". Gaël Faye, however, wanted to let the director sign a personal film. "I had this impression of being a collaborator but I didn't want to impose myself and I didn't want to have any authority over his work. This film is his and I wanted to stay in the right place" , continues Gaël Faye.
>>> Jean-Paul Rouve and Isabelle Kabano surrounded by non-professional actors
Around the comedians Jean-Paul Rouve and Isabelle Kabano, Rwandan actress whose performance was particularly praised during the premiere of the film in Kigali, there are very few professional actors in the film. "90% of the people we see in the film had never acted at all," says the director. "The casting is fundamental in a film like this. It is through the actors that we will capture the first elements of the country's reality, a language, gestures. When we meet Rwandans, we realizes that their way of being is very particular. Without generalizing, there is in the country a way of speaking to each other, of greeting each other, of intervening in a conversation, which is unique, "he explains.
The project was also close to the heart of the actor Jean-Paul Rouve, who plays Gaby's father. "Jean Paul Rouve commits himself to the project from the start while he sees that the script is built around Gaby's point of view. He supports the film right away. And it is very precious for me", declares Eric Barbier.
For Jean-Paul Rouve, this page in the country's history is overwhelming. "I knew this event which had struck me terribly. I read a lot about Rwanda while remaining flabbergasted by what happened there, this genocide… It was 25 years ago, it was yesterday . When we know history, when we grew up with the knowledge of the Shoah, we could tell ourselves that such a horror could no longer exist. It was not possible that such madness would start again somewhere in the world. world. And then there was Rwanda ... "
"Petit Pays" is in theaters on Friday, in partnership with Europe 1.