- 2 days ago
The Hollywood Reporter’s Alex Ritman sat down with the filmmakers of 'Broken Keys' Jimmy Keyrouz & Gabriel Yaredin in a 'THR Presents' Q&A powered by Vision Media.
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00:00Hi, I'm Alex Rittman, and thank you for joining us for The Hollywood Reporter Presents exclusive
00:09Q&A with both Jimmy Carew, writer-director, and Gabriel Yered, composer for Broken Keys.
00:15So thanks, guys. Very, very nice to speak to you today. Congratulations on the film.
00:19Thank you, Alex. Thanks for having us.
00:21Hello.
00:23I think I'll start with the development of the film before we move on to the music,
00:27if you don't mind. So, Jimmy, I'd love to hear where the story came from. There's been several
00:32dramas touching on ISIS, but I found it really interesting for it to be covered from the point
00:38of view of a musician. Well, thank you. Well, it was 2014, and I was in New York. Back then,
00:46I was still a student at Columbia University, and I had to write, to make a short film.
00:52And back then, the war in Syria and Iraq was raging. And like everyone else, I was glued to
01:00watching the news and watching all these terrible things and surreal things that were happening
01:08over there. And what ISIS was doing was pretty shocking. I mean, it was worse than any fiction
01:14one could write. But when I heard that music was banned, I was shocked. Again, I mean, it was
01:23unconceivable for me that something as beautiful and innocent as music could be banned. And I related
01:30a bit to the subject because I know I play piano. My mother insisted that we learn music since I was
01:35seven. And, you know, I started seeing all those. When I started researching, I saw all these pictures
01:43of various musicians and artists expressing themselves. So something, a guy played piano,
01:49a guy played some sort of Middle Eastern guitar, it's called the nude, dancers, even some people
01:56preserved art at the cost of risking their own lives to do so. So that's how it all started. And mainly,
02:05I loved the fact, you know, that a lot of people are trying to send a message of hope and a positive
02:09message and kind of like trying to reach out to the world. And using also art and music,
02:15which is a universal language. And kind of like this, that's where it all started. So back in 2014,
02:21then I shot the feature, the short in Lebanon in 2015. Luckily, in 2016, it won the student Oscar
02:28and BAFTA and DGA. And then I wanted to forget about it and move on to something else. Because,
02:35you know, I've already explored the subject. But everyone kept saying, like, you should really do
02:40a feature. And why don't you do the feature of that short? It was called Nocturne Black.
02:45And, and, you know, the word is so rich, the setup so rich, and there are, there were still so many
02:52things to explore. And, and that's, and then I started writing the feature in 2018. And we start
02:59production in 2019. Fantastic. So what was the differences between the shorts? How far did you get
03:06into the story? The difference? Well, the arc is pretty much the same. It's still about rebuilding
03:14a piano. It's still about someone really trying to rebuild this piano and, and, and in trying to
03:21hold on to, to his dreams and hope, you know, of, of like, getting out, getting out of the place
03:28he's in and, you know, becoming, learning music professionally, and, and, and moving to Europe,
03:34potentially. But, you know, in the, in the, in the, in the long version, I think, just like we,
03:43we explored and stretched different areas of the story, we, we, we dive deeper into into,
03:50you know, the world of the story, the community is living in, the journey of rebuilding a piano,
03:56all of that, I mean, and the ending is slightly, slightly different. Okay, but I don't spoil it.
04:01Sure, sure. And, and for the, for the feature, where did you shoot? I mean, I'm assuming the,
04:08the destruction that you see on camera, I mean, that's not a set, you haven't built that, that was
04:13real life. That, that's not a set. And even if we, I mean, we couldn't even afford a set, you know,
04:18it's like, CGI, and I mean, 3d, like in Game of Thrones, or sets were really out of budget. But which,
04:27which was a good thing for us, because the only choice that was left for us, is to shoot at least
04:34some of it on location. So we went to Iraq, more particularly in Mosul. And we literally shot
04:44at the last places, you know, and areas where the Islamic State fought before the city was, was,
04:52was, was, was, was saved. Sure. So when we were there, you could still, you know, smell.
05:04That body is buried underneath rubble. And you can see like on the floor, some beards that were cut
05:10off from, that the fighters themselves cut off, just because, before they, they, they, they were
05:15caught, or they were going to get caught, just, you know, to, you know, mingle between civilians,
05:21and to go unnoticed. So it sounds dramatic, but it was actually a wonderful experience. I mean, I,
05:29it's funny, but on our way back at the airport, the crew was really having a, you know, it was,
05:34everyone was like, so positive. And, you know, they felt they, you know, went through this
05:40amazing experience to shoot over there. And I think it's brought so much authenticity to the
05:44story. And I'm very happy about that, even though it sounds crazy now that I'm talking to you about
05:50it. It does sound a little crazy. Yeah. And yeah, moving to the music, I would love to hear how you
05:58attracted the attention of the great Gabriel Yarad and persuaded him to work on the score.
06:03Do you want me to tell the story or would you tell the story?
06:06Well, go ahead.
06:10So I'm very interested in young directors. And Jimmy wrote to me an email sending me his short film
06:18and said, I would like you to have a look at this. And he sent me also his script, if I remember,
06:25also his script. So I like to be, as in all my projects, when I'm collaborating with the director,
06:33I like to be involved very early in the process. And Jimmy probably knew that or he was inspired.
06:41So he sent me his short film. And I was amazed by not only by the story itself, but also by his
06:51his direction, the way the way he shoots, the way he conceived, the way he conceptualized an idea
06:58into images. And then I read the script. And I immediately liked it immediately. We said, OK,
07:05we're going to meet because it was very important that we meet up and talk together about the film.
07:11The good things about our collaboration is I started very early by proposing music,
07:19what we call diegetic music, music for the pianist who plays those pieces. So I remember I was very
07:25busy at the time, probably scoring for another film. And I spent time looking into all my library,
07:31my music piano music library to see what could be really the best music this young Karim could play in
07:38this awful surround, you know. And I proposed many pieces to to Jimmy. And this is was probably our first
07:49contact. And it went so well, we decided to meet and to talk about the music. This project
07:56really speaks to me. Because, as Jimmy puts it, he says, can you believe that music is forbidden in
08:05some countries because music is like anti religions, anti religious. And to me, it's very important
08:15that, firstly, the way I have scored this film was as if I was inhabited by by a flame, you know,
08:25to stand up for music, not only just for the images, but that I was really into this film. And I,
08:34I was immersed in a way that finally, I would do my, my themes, my demos, send it to Jimmy, back and
08:44force all the time. This is how we work because he was in Beirut. And one day he came to Paris,
08:49and we discussed together about the whole process. And we got there. And in this score, there is not
08:57necessarily Oriental music, because this is a, this is, I would say, ecumenique, it's worldwide problem.
09:06It's not only Iraq, or Lebanon, or Syria. And I decided to do a score, which could really
09:17marry the spirit of this film. And the spirit is very high, the spirit of this film. And also,
09:24I had this idea, which is to take just a little, a little four bars of the Ninth Symphony by Beethoven,
09:32you know, the, even a la joie, the, the, the, the joy things, and to make it kind of Oriental music
09:40in some way to say, well, here, we're coming from that we're going there, but we are all brothers,
09:46sisters, we are all the same. And music, to me, had this very important role to gather things
09:54together and to say, we're not different. You cannot forbid, forbid music, because music is
10:00the essence of the world. It's the only, the only thing that really support us that say something about
10:08us. So that was my collaboration.
10:12Fantastic. I mean, I was going to say, like the, the, the story is, it's obviously steeped in
10:16like a great deal of sadness and despair, but I really felt the music maintained a sense of hope
10:22and optimism. Was that something that you were trying to maintain?
10:25Well, yes, we didn't want to be, you know, on the nose and to, and to cry and scream and all that.
10:32I mean, the film is so eloquent about all these things, that the music has to really be
10:38very, I would say, pudique. There is a word in French, we say pudique, and it's,
10:42you cannot translate it. I had this conversation with Anthony Minghella many years and said,
10:47there's no pudique. And talking about Anthony, Jimmy's reminded me a lot about Anthony, because
10:55he is very involved, not only in directing, but also in writing, in, in music, in all, you know,
11:02all the things of which are, which a film is made of. And he reminds me a lot about Anthony. It's two
11:10completely different characters, but I've, I found myself very connected to him. And this is a dream
11:17for a composer and director to have a beautiful collaboration and to be like two souls finding
11:23themselves and doing the best they can for the project.
11:27Yeah, that's a wonderful compliment. And your, your lead, your lead actor, I apologize, I don't
11:36have his names at hand, but does he, does he play the piano?
11:40Oh, well, does he play the piano? Actually, he doesn't.
11:44Wow. Okay. Yeah. So, but, but what we did, and I was a bit, you know, nervous about that, about it.
11:53Um, so we, we hired a teacher that, you know, um, would, would, would teach him how to play, um,
12:01the pieces, but the pieces we, we, uh, Gabriel chose, um, and that we, I mean, we agreed on,
12:07especially the last one were incredibly complicated. I mean, the last one, it's, it's,
12:12it's Beethoven and it's, uh, uh, it's incredibly complicated. So, I mean, no player piano. I mean,
12:19I've been playing since, you know, as a hobby since like more 20 years now, more, and I can't even,
12:26I can't dream of playing it. So it's really complicated. What we did is we, we hired someone
12:32who would teach him at least, uh, how to, you know, uh, place the hand correctly on the keyboard.
12:37And, you know, and, and I remember Gabriel told me, uh, let him have the right pacing.
12:43Um, so we did that for, for, for, for some of the scenes, for some of the closeups, we, we casted
12:50someone who have a pianist who have similar hands, uh, or as similar as the actor, as the actor's hands.
12:57And, and we, and we did the closeup this way, but for me, uh, I mean, I was, I was nervous about
13:04the moment, you know, when I, when I, when Gabriel saw the rough cut and I remember, and I asked him
13:09like, does it sound, uh, credible for you enough? And I said, yeah, yeah, I mean, I'm, I'm, I'm fine.
13:15You can tell he's playing.
13:16Yes, yes.
13:18You're, if you're fine with it.
13:21That the guy is not playing. I mean, he's because he has a very good position of his hands
13:26and all the rest is cheating, but they are cheaters, the directors, but I don't know how he did it,
13:31but it's so realistic that nobody could think of that. There was two people playing or two people,
13:38you know, the fingers of two, two different people. And the selection of the music is also
13:44so important. It speaks, you know, beyond the images, what it says, those great Chopin and Brahms
13:51and Beethoven and Schumann. They, they are here despite all the interdiction. I mean,
14:00people say you cannot do music, but Schumann was here, Chopin was here, Brahms was here,
14:04and Beethoven was here. And I was going to say an insult, but I won't say it.
14:10You kind of raised it early, but the, that the final song, you know, that the Beethoven,
14:21what was the decision behind you in the, in the final all important scene? How did you
14:27come to select that?
14:28But this was the decision of Jimmy, who had this great idea to see the guy
14:34on the village place. And despite everything happening, he would play boldly. He would play
14:40this music till the end. And I thought that my score should never interrupt this. My score comes after,
14:47after Ludwig van has, has expressed everything, because this music is furious in some way. It is,
14:56and it's Marshall, but it's very proud, this sonata by Beethoven. And I say, that's the best end for
15:03the film. And when I discovered this, I was really, really happy, happy to see this. And there was no
15:10need for music. Music comes much later to finish the film.
15:14No, it works really well. And Gabriel, I know that you, you like to record your scores in London.
15:20Was it the same for, was it the same for this?
15:22Oh, yes.
15:25Alex, can you believe that this has been recorded on Zoom? I mean, not recorded on Zoom,
15:32but it was by Zoom.
15:33Yeah.
15:34I mean, it was at Air Studios in Hampstead. I had all my principals there. It was a large orchestra,
15:42because I mean, we were 50 to 60, 60 musicians. And this was the very first session they made after
15:53the lockdown. So everyone was so happy, you know, to go back to recording, to play music. And all of
16:01the musicians were really sitting far one from each other. This has been fixed by the mixing, but it was
16:09uneasy for them, but they played wonderfully well. And I was on the other side in Paris, on the other
16:14side of the channel, in my room, and I could speak with them. And Air Studio had installed a system
16:22which allowed me to hear exactly what the engineer would hear in the booth. And it was a great session.
16:29It was like a celebration. You know, it happens with this film. Jimmy was in Beirut listening,
16:34the producer, Frederic, was in Paris listening. And I was conducting, I mean, directing the session,
16:41but I was not conducting. I had hired a conductor. And the sessions were really just a, you know,
16:47like celebration. That's the real word. And the musicians were really happy. It happened to me to
16:52do another score after, but this was really the first one just after the lockdown.
16:58Oh, that's amazing. Does that kind of present any, you know, it sounds like it presents complications,
17:04you not being physically there, but were you able to, you know, did it flow just as much as it would
17:09have done? Yeah, but I like to be there. The musicians also wanted me to be there because,
17:14you know, it's, we are so much, it's so friendly a session. You know that, I mean, you, you see your
17:21first tombos, your leader, and then you, your viola leader and the cello leader, and you hug
17:27when there is no pandemic and so many things and you go for a beer. But this didn't happen. But
17:33I think the music sounded really well. And thanks to the engineer, the mixing engineer also,
17:38recording and mixing, because he has to redo the sound in a way because they were so far
17:43wrong from each other that apparently there was no cohesion, but there is a cohesion because they
17:49play together. And, and, and Jimmy, this is obviously Lebanon's entry to the Academy Awards. And the
17:55past few years, I mean, you're an esteemed company from, from Lebanon. It's just been,
18:01it's phenomenally successful. How does it feel to be, to be now among them?
18:05Well, I'm, I'm, I'm very happy. I'm grateful also. I mean, you were just spoke about how the music
18:15was scored. I mean, this film was shot in extraordinary circumstances. I mean, we spoke
18:21about Mosul, but then when we came back to Lebanon, the revolution had just started, you know, like two
18:27days prior to our, our, our return to Lebanon. So we stopped the shooting for three weeks. And then when we,
18:33we, and we really struggled to, you know, continue because everyone's schedule has changed. And when
18:38we did, there was an unprecedented financial crash. So basically everyone's money was stuck in the
18:48banks and, you know, you still need liquidity to continue a film. So thanks to production and, and,
18:55and, and a lot of people's amazing efforts, we were able to, to, to, to, you know, overcome this. And then
19:02COVID happened and was, was, and even, even the score was, you know, scored, you know, for Paris to
19:08London. It's, I think, I mean, first I'm, I'm, I'm grateful because we were able to finish the
19:17film despite, you know, all these extraordinary circumstances. I'm, I'm really, I mean, I want to
19:23thank everyone so, so much, um, uh, the cast, the crew, uh, the production, uh, and I'm very happy
19:33for Lebanon because all the news that came out of Lebanon for the past two years were incredibly
19:38negative. Uh, there was the revolution, which is a positive thing, but it came out of, you know,
19:45deep corruption and everything. And then, uh, the force of August happens. Um, and it was, you know,
19:53the, the third biggest explosion in a city, uh, after Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Um, so I'm happy, uh,
20:01that, you know, uh, there's something positive coming out from Lebanon. Uh, and I don't know,
20:10I'm, I'm grateful. I'm, I'm grateful, um, to be where we are and let's see what happens. I mean,
20:16uh, I hope that, you know, um, good things will happen. I'm sure they will. And, and, and finally,
20:25I think the film, you know, is obviously it's set during a very sad period, but it has that,
20:31that positivity to about the power of music and the importance of music. Have you had a chance to,
20:37you know, go back to these places where, you know, music was banned, you know, have, have they,
20:42have they managed to see the film in, um, in areas where ISIS, um, were controlled?
20:48Have they seen the film? I'd say, no, uh, the film is not out yet. So no one's almost seen the film.
20:55We do, uh, plan to, you know, send to various festivals. Uh, I also hope and, and, and wish the
21:03film world screen in, in Syria and Iraq and some festivals. I mean, we don't know where exactly
21:09yet, but that's definitely, you know, when you make a film, you want as, as many people
21:14as possible to see it, but you also want like those, uh, I mean, I'd love to, I love to those,
21:20if the people in that went through this would watch it, I think it will, it would be an amazing thing.
21:26Because, you know, just like we mentioned earlier, um, this is a story of a man trapped
21:32between four walls and, you know, where you're, uh, where living is in that place, just about
21:39surviving. And that guy is basically saying living is more than survival. I mean, if you can't, you
21:44know, play music and dance and do and dress the way we want, then what, what are we fighting for?
21:49I think if I'm, if I recall correctly, Winston Churchill during the, the, uh, after, uh, during
21:56the second world war, when they wanted to cut out the budget for the arts. And then he said,
22:01then what the hell would we be fighting for, uh, in favor of the war efforts? And then he refused
22:06that. So I think there's this idea that is very important. I think we, that we talked about is the
22:10importance of music, uh, and art, especially in that kind of, of places. Uh, because I think that's
22:17that's what differentiates us from, you know, animals. If we can't, you know, do the things we
22:21want, uh, and if you can't, you know, if, if we can't express ourselves, uh, then I would guess
22:28life is not worth fighting for. Um, well, well, that's, um, that's beautifully put. And I think,
22:33you know, that's a perfect way to, to end this, this conversation, but, but really nice speaking to
22:38you, both Jimmy and Gabriel. Can I add one? I think I didn't have a chance to say it, but, um, um,
22:45when I said that I was grateful about a bunch of things, I mean, for me, the first victory that this,
22:50this, I'm, I'm one of the things I'm grateful the most for, or maybe it's, it's, uh, having Gabriel
22:57on board. I mean, I wanted to thank you because, you know, that I consider that this was the first
23:02biggest victory for the film. Um, when a story centered so much about, uh, music, uh, having someone
23:10like him was, I mean, I was sure from the beginning that not only it was, you know,
23:16obviously we're going to have a great score, but this was going to propel the film and the whole,
23:20not just the story, but the whole film forward so much. Uh, because I think someone like Gabriel
23:27would understand this kind of, of story more than most because, uh, not only because of, you know,
23:34the, the musician and composer that he is, but because of also where he grew up. I mean,
23:40he did grow up, uh, at least in the first part of his life in that area of the world. So he would
23:45understand what it means, you know, to have restrictions on things and he would understand,
23:50you know, how to maybe add a little element that, you know, make it even more authentic to that,
23:55you know, place. Um, so thank you. And, uh, thank you for agreeing to do this.
24:00Thank you for, for, for scoring for us. Uh, it was a, an amazing victory for the film.
24:06Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much, Jimmy. And thank you, Gabriel. And thank you for joining
24:11us for the Hollywood Reporter Presents screening series. Thanks, Alex. Thank you so much.
24:16Thank you, Alex.
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