00:00What were you doing 30 years ago in Peru? What were you looking for?
00:05I was looking for where to bring my life, some meaning of my life maybe.
00:10It was my first journey in Peru. First time I was doing like a big trip, you know,
00:16and I was looking for a lot, all things that could awake me.
00:23And so, you know, you visit the Machu Picchu, you visit like the Iquitos in the jungle.
00:31I went to Iquitos also to see like where Werner Herzog has done his movie and all this.
00:38And then I heard about the Nazca Lines and this is how I arrived over there because they said,
00:44yeah, these strange figures, it's a woman who has discovered this and I wanted to see it.
00:50But did you know that this Maria Reiche was there or it was a coincidence that you met her?
00:57No, it was like, you know, at this time we had this lonely planet, this book, you know.
01:03Still existing.
01:04Still exists, yeah. So they were telling, yeah, the Nazca Lines and then they give the story of Maria,
01:10like this woman who has discovered it and who work on it since 50 years.
01:16So we had both already, you know, the story of the Nazca Lines and Maria.
01:21But then when I arrived over there, I went above the Nazca Lines with a plane with other tourists
01:27and it was beautiful. It's amazing to see the lines, the figures from above.
01:31And then I had the opportunity to go to Kawachi. Kawachi, you know, in the movie you can see it,
01:39it's the ruins, you know.
01:40And I went to Kawachi, but Kawachi at this moment was completely like a museum in the desert.
01:46It was full of ceramics, of textile, of everything. And so me, I was like a young guy and very,
01:54I was like crazy about Indiana Jones.
01:58And I did the same. I saw some ceramics and I started to take it and oh, but this is
02:02good and this is good and this is good.
02:04I put a lot of things in my bag. And then in the night, there was somebody giving the story
02:09of Maria in one of the hotels,
02:11like explaining everything. So I arrived over there and they explained me all her life and that was amazing from
02:19the beginning of this young woman until the end.
02:21But at the end of the, of this conference, this woman said, please, if you can, if you go to
02:28Kawachi, please don't take anything.
02:30It's very, it's very bad if you take it for the museum. So I understand that I did something completely
02:35stupid.
02:36So I came back, I went to see this woman and I said, I'm sorry, I need to talk to
02:40you.
02:40And she said, yeah, go. And I said, no, I need to talk to you alone somewhere. And I said,
02:45look, I did something very stupid.
02:46I took a lot of ceramics and I want to give it to you, give you back and you can
02:50bring it back over there.
02:52And so she said, ah, okay. And then some other archaeologists came and she's make fun of me.
02:58Ah, look, this young guy who took this stuff. But after a moment, they asked me, yeah, yeah, come, come
03:02with us.
03:02We go to eat all together with some archaeologists. And while we were eating, they asked me if I want
03:08to work with them.
03:09And they tell me many years later, why? Because it was the first time that, that a tourist bring back
03:17the material.
03:18So they were thinking, if this young guy bring us this, we can have, we can trust in him.
03:24You can trust him.
03:24Exactly. And this is how it begins my story.
03:27Was this the only meeting with Maria?
03:30No, this was the, the, the, the woman who gave the conference was not Maria.
03:34Ah, okay.
03:35It was like somebody from the association who was working with Maria.
03:39Maria at this time was laying in her bed in the Nazca Hotel.
03:44She was, she was blind.
03:46Her whole body was done by her work.
03:50In fact, she has like skin cancer, blind.
03:55She, she was really at the end, she could not move almost.
03:57She was really like a very, very, very, very, very old person.
04:01Consumed.
04:01But she was, she just said to me when I, I say hello and I came to see her.
04:06And the woman said, ah, she, Damien is from Switzerland.
04:10And she just take my hand and she, she said, ah, um, Switzerland, ah, ha, ha, chocolate.
04:16That's the only thing she did.
04:18But it's, she was really, no, she was going, she was almost already gone.
04:23So when did you decide, I want to do my first feature film talking about this very special woman?
04:30That was in 2007.
04:33After I did the documentary.
04:35About her.
04:36About her.
04:37And then after the documentary, I decided, no, it's not enough to do the documentary.
04:40I cannot give to the audience this strong feeling, this strong energy.
04:46So I need to do a fiction to give this to the, to the audience.
04:49Do you feel very close to her as a person or to what she did?
04:55I feel close to her, yes, in a way that we, we both love Peru.
05:01And we have, we are like European people who really try to go into another, another country
05:09and another way of seeing the world.
05:11So, yes, I feel, I feel close to her.
05:14And also she was searching all the whole, all her life.
05:18And she doesn't have all the answer.
05:20And I like, I like the, the journey.
05:23I like the question more than the answer.
05:25So, yes, I feel close to her.
05:27She was a feminist in advance.
05:30She left her country and she was lobbying another woman.
05:34So did you feel this aspect while you were writing your script?
05:40Yes, she, she's this kind of woman, you know,
05:43we have, we have this kind of very adventurous woman who are,
05:48they are not feminist because they don't do it like intellectually.
05:51They don't tell it, but the way they act, the choice they do in their life
05:57are very like, very feminist. Yes.
06:01So in France, I know the movie is already released.
06:04Yes.
06:05So how is the reaction of the public here?
06:08It's very interesting because people have a reaction very emotional on the movie.
06:14It means they don't just watch the movie and they say,
06:17oh, it's quite interesting and they go away.
06:19They are, most of the public is really completely into her story
06:25and very, it's very emotional for them.
06:28I was thinking they will understand something, but I was not thinking that it's going to be so emotional for
06:34the audience.
06:36Some people are crying at the end of the movie or some people are telling me that they have like,
06:42you know, this.
06:44most of the people, they said, thank you because I feel again more alive.
06:52They really, they really feel something for themselves after the movie.
06:57And it's very interesting because in some places in France, people don't go out of the cinema.
07:04They stay after and they talk to each other.
07:07Which is the best?
07:09People who don't know, they don't know the other one, but they start to talk.
07:13And many people have explained to me this, that people stay.
07:17So it gives something very, it's not just a story that people just eat and go away.
07:24It seems to stay very strongly with the people.
07:27Do you have an idea about why did you speak with these people?
07:31Yes, it's because all my work of director is to bring the audience to have, the first level is the
07:39story of this amazing woman.
07:40But the other level is the theme of the film is how can we find a connection with the world
07:46and with ourselves.
07:48That's the real theme of the film.
07:50And so the people, they don't put really names, but they do this journey.
07:55When I cannot say, but at one moment of the film, they really feel the connection with it.
08:01And so when it's the end of the film, they say, wow, I've done it.
08:06I feel it.
08:07So I think that's why, because I wanted to have a proposition for the audience of a journey quite exceptional.
08:15And this seems to go on it.
08:16The landscape is wonderful.
08:19It's really nourishing.
08:20How did you work at the look of the movie?
08:23I wanted to do some, to have something a little bit of the seventies, like very simple.
08:28I didn't want to move.
08:29I didn't want, I wanted, I didn't want to have any, a movie with an ego.
08:34I think this woman, the story of this woman is not a woman of an ego.
08:38So I didn't want to show any ego on the way we shoot.
08:42So it's very simple.
08:43And I wanted to something very simple.
08:45And we go into, we go deeply into this image all the time.
08:49So it looks, it doesn't move.
08:51And then we go into it.
08:52And also we played a lot with the light of the sun.
08:56Because one of the, the revelation and the important theme of the film is the sun.
09:01So we did with my DOP.
09:02We work only with the light of the sun.
09:05Are you already writing your next movie?
09:08And what is it about?
09:10Yeah, well, well, first the theme, because this movie is really how do we find our connection
09:15and how do we find our way.
09:17And the next movie I think will be later in our life, somebody who has lost this
09:23and who will try to find, again, to be alive, that, that will be the next, the next movie.
09:30And the title is going to be Your Second Chance.
09:35This is the Second Chance.
09:36It will be another circle, no?
09:38No.
09:40No.
09:41I cannot.
09:42No, I'm joking.
09:42But do you already know the title for it?
09:44From your face?
09:46Yes.
09:46Ah, okay.
09:47Okay, okay.
09:48Thank you very much.
09:49You're welcome.
09:50Thank you.
09:50Thank you.
09:51Thank you.
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