2023-05-06 14:00:04
As far back as he can remember, Cédric Ido, 42, has always liked to observe the life of his city of Seine-Saint-Denis and the way in which it has informed his relationship to the world. He knew from the start that he would do it. He just had to find the right window. “I wondered about the way to approach the suburbs differently from what had already been done, by being as less frontal as possible. But how do you find the right metaphor? »
In his line of sight: the new generation in the grip of nihilism, which recognizes neither in the parents, nor in the big brothers. “I am struck by the talents, the inventiveness of these young people who, however, are not aware of it because they have never heard backregrets Cédric Ido. It’s that glass ceiling above their heads which led me to the idea of gravity. The planets center us all. On the scale of the galaxy, our navel-gazing, our bickering become derisory. »
The confrontation between two generations, which his second feature film depicts, is thus aligned with the movement of the planets, the suburbs suddenly appearing like an open-air laboratory. A futuristic field where the young inhabitants dress, move, act according to new codes, borrowed from manga, Japanese culture and its rites. References that can lead to new types of radical actions such as, in Gravitythe human sacrifice of a clan volunteer or a member of a rival gang.
Double culture
“My intention was to show how a pseudo-fundamentalism could arise outside of religion. I also wanted to give the new generation a more sophisticated image than that of the old ones. Through their clothes, in particular. And the colors they wear, blue-white-red. They represent both the French flag and relate to Japanese symbolism, blue for wisdom, red which wards off demons… This aesthetic says at the same time: “Whatever happens, we are French, but we behave differently.” » It’s up to us, suggests the director, to see a richness in it.
Coming from a double culture, Cédric Ido knows what he is talking about. He grew up in Stains (Seine-Saint-Denis), with a break, between the ages of 3 and 8 years old. Period during which (1983-1988) his mother, unable to find work in France, decided to return to settle in Burkina Faso with her two sons, Cédric and Jacky (now an actor, director and screenwriter, like his brother) . Led by President Thomas Sankara, the country saw its first revolution. Cédric Ido had his first contact with the stage, appearing as a simple silhouette in a play performed at the Maison du peuple, in Ouagadougou. The little boy, intoxicated for a long time already with the films he watches with his family, thanks to his film-loving parents, immediately feels at ease.
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