00:00You have a lot of film that speak about fraternity and speak about this
00:18friendship between Christian, Muslim and also other film Jews, but the question is
00:26what's the audience of the film? We are here at the Venice Festival and the Venice
00:32Festival offer a platform and visibility for this film and a lot of
00:38time a lot of those films don't have visibility. Kingdom of Heaven for example
00:44was a major, major Hollywood production and of course the distribution was
00:52amazing and and this film it was really the first time that Muslim and for
00:59example Salaheddin was portrayed in a very compassionate way with
01:07with a Christian which was a true history by the way of Salaheddin that's why in
01:12the West we have a lot of respect for him but to have it in a movie sharing and
01:19promoting this value of coexistence that was something new and I would say
01:26they the film The Messenger in 1976 so we're talking about before the 80s with
01:35Anthony Quinn was for me the only film that portray Islam in a very nice way and
01:42human way and today a lot of networks finance film on terrorism I did a lot of
01:52him on terrorism and about dictatorship and because we know that this is film
01:57that can make audience but that's why my next project is gonna be more about this
02:05friendship and my next project is about Prophet Muhammad be upon him but what he
02:12did for Christian and believe me I've been working on that for several years and
02:17I'm amazed to see what he did for Christian and what the Christian did also for
02:23Islam at the beginning of Islam and I think it's a role filmmaker to share a message we
02:32all have a message to share sometimes it can be good sometimes it can be also bad look
02:40for example but I did a movie on the Hitler family and my last shooting day of
02:45shooting was with filmmaker Lenny Riefenstein she was a filmmaker of Adolf Hitler
02:50of Adolf Hitler and and women with a talent immense but her talent was for the
03:01third Reich and you know we as a filmmaker we have a responsibility where we want to
03:07put her talent and what where we want to put her energy and what kind of message we
03:13want to send you said that history is neutral is neutral it depends who tells the
03:18history you know because if you tell the history from the European side you know in
03:28in European book I'm French but in French book you know we tell our history but we
03:34don't in school we don't we don't teach the history of really Africa the kingdom of
03:41Axelmo and it's a very rich history so you know as a filmmaker you touch a very
03:47sensitive subject for me is do you know sometimes people ask me are you balanced in
03:56a new documentary are you fair or you know if you do documentary or fiction is the same I
04:02don't believe in balance I don't believe in fair we all have a point of view and we
04:07a point of view is is made by a culture but also by a motivation and a family background my
04:17grandfather was murdered the day of the independence of Algeria and where a lot of Christian were
04:28killed and this was because of a French decision who didn't want to support they they own citizen of
04:35course when I do documentary you know I'm I have this trauma in me about my family history so if I did movie about genocide about the
04:43about Ham Hussein but be not and it's because we all have a story to tell and this comes always from from inside and filmmaker that's why to answer your question I don't believe in in neutral story or balance you will all have a point of view you know when you see about the situation for example now of Gaza
04:50filmmaker who did no overland won an Academy Award Year Award for Academy Award of it
05:18Academy Award fo so not out of Academy Award Award for best documentary this year
05:20You know, he did that with a Jewish filmmaker, and that's a powerful message, a Jewish and a Palestinian filmmaker.
05:31But the film had a great audience, a great impact, but after the backlash was very damaging for the filmmaker,
05:45he was arrested, or not arrested, he had a problem with local people.
05:52So, you know, it's always when you make a film and you promote ideas of coexistence,
06:01sometimes people are not ready to accept that idea of coexistence.
06:07I believe cinema has a power for social changes, you know.
06:14For example, and has a power to influence people's perspective on history also.
06:21You know, for example, if you take the example of Cleopatra, okay.
06:27Without the Hollywood movie, I'm not sure Cleopatra would be such an icon.
06:32Cinema has the power to transform historical person into icon or not.
06:39Gandhi, for example, I believe that the movie made a great contribution to turn Gandhi into an icon.
06:49Some movie had this power to change, to have a social and political change, but not all the movie has this power of influencing coexistence,
07:06because you have movie, entertaining movie, comedy, but socially conscious movie, yes.
07:13There, and it's a segment of, if you see film festival, you know, you have a lot of different themes,
07:20and you have always one theme on socially conscious cinema, and Venice is good at that, Cannes also is good at that.
07:28And this socially conscious cinema, yes, they have this power, but everything depends on the platform, the dynamic we offer to those films.
07:42So, there is a screen, and we can see film festival that is just by the group of theaters, and Zuha.
07:46I think you can see it in a video series.
07:51You can see it in the next one.
07:52Right, you can see it in the episode 7.
07:57The film festival, it's a film festival.
08:01It's a film festival that came in a series of modes of television.
08:04Like, you can see it in the street.
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