“I was able to show urban Egypt in “Moon Knight””

• The highly anticipated Marvel

  l Moon Knight

  series is available this Wednesday on Disney+.

• Oscar Isaac portrays Steven Grant, a discreet employee in a museum souvenir shop, victim of memory loss and haunted by strange visions.

• The filmmaker Mohamed Diab tells how he fought to make this series against the backdrop of Egypt, modern and ancient.

Moon Knight

is one of the most anticipated series of the year!

Twenty-four hours after it was posted, the trailer already had 75 million views.

Available this Wednesday on Disney +,

a 6-part miniseries based on the eponymous Marvel comics and created by Jeremy Slater, follows Steven Grant (Oscar Isaac), a discreet employee in a museum souvenir shop, victim of losses of memory and haunted by strange visions.

He will discover that he suffers from a dissociative identity disorder and that he shares the same body as a mercenary, Marc Spector.

To stage its blockbuster against a backdrop of modern and ancient Egypt, Marvel Studios has relied on Egyptian filmmaker Mohamed Diab, best known for his film 

which deals with the sexual harassment of women in the city of Cairo.

Meet the director who fought tooth and nail to direct this story of schizo superheroes.

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What made you want to make this series?

Are you a fan of Marvel, "Moon Knight" in particular?

I'm a fan of great intimate films, like those of Denis Villeneuve.

I learned English from American films.

I had made international films, presented at festivals.

I moved to Hollywood three years ago.

My wife, Sarah, and I had written and sold two science fiction films.

But when my agents told me about

, I said to myself: “It's all me, the drama in it, the Egyptian part, present and past”.

I challenged myself to do things I had never done before, like action, comedy and horror.

It's every director's dream.

What I liked the most was the character with his duality.

We all have a form of duality, the person inside and the person outside.

With Mark and Steven, it's very clearly separated, but I can identify with them.

That's why I fought for this job.

With my wife, we wrote a pitch of two hundred pages that talked about everything.

Once these two pages were written, I knew that I was the best to do

I was born to do this!

What was it in those 200 pages that convinced Marvel to hand over the reins to you?

These famous pages had everything, starting with photos of me as a child near Egyptian remains.

As a child, I was crazy about it.

I had also made films on the question of identity.

I had detailed how I could develop this story: how I saw Mark, Steven, the villain, Layla, etc.

I talked about Egypt, about the fact that we don't see Egypt as it is in the films we see.

I showed how beautiful the real Egypt is and what beautiful places I wanted to shoot.

I talked about the editing, how I wanted to stage the action, my acting credentials.

We also discussed art direction, visual themes, how I could reflect Mark and Steven's feelings on screen.

In almost every scene,

you can see a shadow or something that reflects the idea of ​​duality, but also sometimes the feeling of being caged.

I had 5 or 6 titles of Egyptian music, capable of appealing to Western audiences.

Not that old-fashioned, orientalist Arabic music.

You talk about how to represent the duality of the character, did you have any references in mind, like "Fight Club" or "Total Recall" for example?

I watched all the movies that had a connection with duality, to learn.

Then I completely disconnected from it.

References should not be seen.

We have our own version of duality.

The blinks, the memory lapses, the disorientation… I wanted us to really be in the shoes of someone with dissociative identity disorder.

The disorientation the viewer feels is what Mark and Steven feel.

And how did you work with Oscar Isaac on this duality?

Oscar watched my movies and called me.

The first thing he said to me was, “What are you doing in this project?

".

I told him that for me, making intimate films was not reserved for small budgets.

We talked and we had the same vision: “Let’s make it a character study”.

The same thing happened with Ethan… [Hawke, who plays the villain] Every actor has been their character's best advocate.

We all had ideas about their appearance, their hair… Oscar is the one who contributed the most.

He had the idea of ​​the accent, for example, which makes it easier to distinguish them.

On set, he forgot all the theories we talked about, as soon as he's Mark or Steven, his behavior changes, he's a completely different person.

May Calamawy plays Layla El-Faouly.

What does it mean to you that an Egyptian-Palestinian actress has such an important role in a Marvel series?

It was very important to me that all Egyptian roles were played by Egyptian actors.

I thought of May as soon as I read the script.

I even called her to ask her if she was free for filming before she was cast, I had a feeling she would.

May is very involved.

I think she's going to be a huge star after the show.

It already is for me.

Now the world will know her.

This is not the last time you will see May!

What pitfalls have your sensitivity and your Egyptian culture made it possible to avoid in the representation of Egypt?

Two or three things.

First, to show Egypt as it is.

I was able to show urban Egypt.

While Cairo is one of the biggest cities in the world, it is always shown with a pyramid in the desert!

Then we have a strong female character, like in all my films.

Egyptian women are not as you think.

Even if it is difficult for them, they are strong and are not submissive.

The strongest person in my household is my mother.

Finally, I had the opportunity to show liveliness and Egyptian humor.

I really wanted to share this with the world.

It's a small step in the right direction to show Egypt as real as possible.

I hope next time we will shoot in Egypt and I can show even more things about Egyptian culture and people.

"Moon Knight" is the last screen appearance of actor Gaspard Ulliel, who died in January 2022 of a skiing accident. How was the collaboration with him?

It's always so surreal to talk about him in the past tense.

It does not make sense !

We met in 2011 during the French premiere of

at the International Festival of Mediterranean Cinema in Montpellier.

He attended the screening, he loved it and we talked.

When I found out I was mistaken for

, I immediately thought of him for this role.

We contacted him.

I always thought it had everything Hollywood needs.

He could have been a Hollywood star.

He had the physicality, the talent… I thought the series could be an important step for him.

He arrived on set very humbly, as if it were his very first day of filming, when I know how important he is in France.

I liked his questions and worked with him.

He did an excellent job.

I told him at the end that once the show comes out, even though the role is small, Marvel and Marvel fans would want to see him again.

He will live with us forever through his films, and I am happy to have been part of a very small part of his legacy.

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• Culture

• Marvel

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• Gaspard ulliel

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