2023-08-27 16:50:21
Home Culture
The Angoulême Francophone Film Festival broadcast a preview of “Ma France à moi” directed by Benoit Cohen with Fanny Ardant in the main role. Based on a true story, this feature film tells the story of a Parisian bourgeoise who welcomes an Afghan refugee. In theaters from December 20.
France Televisions Writing Culture
Published on 08/27/2023 16:50
Reading time: 2 min.
Fanny Ardant and Nawid Elham in “Ma France à moi”. (FRANCE 3)
France, in her sixties, lives alone in her bourgeois apartment in eastern Paris. When she hears on the radio about an association that puts homeless refugees in contact with those who can accommodate them, she takes the plunge. It is then that Reza, an Afghan migrant arrives in his life. Here is the pitch of the last film My France To Me directed by Benoit Cohen.
In the role of the bourgeois woman who opens her door to a refugee, Fanny Ardant. The actress was seduced by this ambivalent and complex character. “I liked the idea of playing a woman but who was not a saint, or as a kind of proselytism of well-meaning, so I liked this contradiction, this strong and at the same time fragile side. When little by little, she could oppose this young man and at the same time make him strong, rather than always being on the compassionate side“explains the actress.
France 3 Poitou-Charente
A fiction adapted from a true story told in a book
My France To Me, directed by Benoit Cohen deals with the reception of migrants, a sensitive subject that is still topical. A choice that is not the result of chance since this feature film is directly adapted from his novel Mohammad, my mother and I, published by Flammarion in 2018. In this unique story, Benoit Cohen tells the story of his own mother who herself welcomed a migrant, also from Afghanistan.
If the work describes with a lot of humor the exhilarating and complex path that is the meeting of the other and wonders about what giving means, Benoit Cohen took the liberty of taking a few liberties to adapt it to the movie theater. “There are a lot of differences between the book and the film. In the book, everyone is handsome, everyone is nice. in the end, there is still a subject, a message” he explains.
The very young Afghan actor Nawi Elahm, who made his film debut in the role of the young migrant, does not hide his pride in sharing the bill with Fanny Ardant. A generous actress. “She had her own pleasure. People who have played and toured with Fanny Ardant know what I’m talking about. She really helped me during the filming, it was great ” he exclaims. The actress who was rare on the big screen is back this fall with very eclectic choices. This year, the public will discover her not only in the role of France but she will also be in the comedy poster burned alongside John Malkovitch and Emilie Dequesnne which will be released in theaters from November 1st.
“Ma France à moi” by Benoît Cohen with Fanny Ardant in theaters on December 20.
View comments
#Fanny #Ardant #welcomes #Afghan #refugee #France #moi #previewed #Angoulême #Film #Festival