- Hello, and welcome to a special Q and A recording
of "La Nuit Des Rois", "Night of Kings",
directed by Philippe Lacote.
This is one of the 50 official selection titles
at the 45th Toronto International Film Festival,
and this film plays as part
of the Contemporary World Cinema section,
which is generously sponsored by Sun Life.
My name is Kiva Reardon and I'm the lead programmer
of Contemporary World Cinema,
and I'm thrilled to be here with Philippe
and our translator.
Philippe grew up in Abidjan, Cote D'Ivoire,
and he has directed short films, documentaries,
and series, including "Somnambule", "Cairo Hours",
"Chronicles of War in the Ivory Coast",
and the TIFF selections "To Repel Ghosts" and "Run".
"Night of Kings" is his latest film.
We'd like to thank our audience, you, for joining us today.
As an organization still impacted by COVID,
we need the support of people like you, our audiences,
so that we can continue to present films
to future generations and preserve these important voices.
And of course, this film is eligible for
the People's Choice Award,
and you can vote for your favorite film at tiff.net/vote.
Philippe, thank you so much for being here.
I am so thrilled that we can share this film
with our audiences, and I'd like to begin by asking about
the genesis of the film.
I read in another interview that it was partly drawn
from a story of a friend of yours
who had been in La Maca prison.
Why did you decide that you wanted to tell this story
in that world, in the world of the prison?
(translator speaking in a foreign language)
(Philippe speaking in a foreign language)
- Hi, and thank you for being here.
So when I was shooting my first film,
at the end I met a friend who was just coming out of jail,
from that jail La Maca,
who's in a like lower-class neighborhood of Abidjan.
And he told me that there was a prisoner in that jail
whose name was Roman,
which by the way in French means novel, (chuckles)
and he was in charge of telling stories
to the other prisoners.
So I thought it was kind of a marvelous story.
And of course, the reality is not as extreme
in terms of violence than what you see in the film,
but I thought that this was a great base for telling a story
and like reflecting on storytelling.
- Thank you, and of course the poster for "Run"
is right behind you as well.
So I hope, you know, our audiences seek that out as well.
I'm curious as well,
because you would have made documentaries before
and this film has such a realism to it, as does "Run",
but you've described that film as an urban legend,
and I see that kind of magical element incorporated
in this film.
Why did you wanna return to that motif of magical realism?
(translator speaking in a foreign language)
(Philippe speaking in a foreign language)
- So already in "Run", my first feature,
there was a kind of magic realism, like for instance,
there's an elephant that appears and that makes like omen,
but magic realism is a term that's only used
in Europe and in America,
because in Africa it's just our reality.
For instance, you can see a trial in Abidjan
where a person will be tried for like shooting a deer,
but it's actually the uncle that died, as an example.
So the frontiers between reality and magical
are way more porous, they're not as clear as,
for instance, in Europe.
And it was really important for me that the film was made
in that spirit and to like incorporate
the imaginary world of Africa.
- Thank you.
Another thing that really struck me about the film
is how it's such a rumination on storytelling
and storytelling's role in survival.
And of course, this is very much based around
the character of Roman and the griot figure
and also how it takes into account
something like the Scheherazade figure as well.
Did you always have this idea to base the film
around a character like Roman and have this be a film
about the art and act of storytelling?
(translator speaking in a foreign language)
(Philippe speaking in a foreign language)
- So yes, the story started from the beginning
from the character of Roman.
That's the way I build my film.
I start from the idea of a character,
and also the reference to Scheherazade
went there from the beginning.
What interested me about this power relationship in jail
was to see how storytelling could save people from violence.
That's basically the story of Scheherazade
in "Arabian Nights".
She's married to a sultan who kills his wife,
and the only way to survive is to tell a story
that will last as long as possible
so she doesn't get killed.
And so my idea was to go back to the oral tradition,
the tradition of orality in Africa,
the character of the griot.
Griot? (laughs)
Griot, how do you say it in English?
Griot.
And it's interesting because jail is not a space
for direct transmission.
So it's interesting to explore that space.
And it also goes back to my own vocation to tell story.
I'm a storyteller.
Maybe I tell too many stories,
so it's also a kind of a meta reflection on who I am.
- To build on that a bit, the use of dance as well,
I think builds into the multifaceted way of communication,
that it's not just oral, it's also very physical as well.
At what point did you decide you wanted to have
the element of dance in the film as well?
(translator speaking in a foreign language)
(Philippe speaking in a foreign language)
- Well, we are in cinema, so it needs to be visual.
It wouldn't have been very interesting to have somebody
just tell a story for one hour and a half.
So I wanted this storytelling to be very physical,
to be embodied.
I was inspired by "Les Maitres Fous" by Jean Rouch
where there's also a kind of trance.
So this space of narration also becomes
a space of expression and it's interesting to have
all different types of expression united
around this character of Roman.
We have an interesting tradition in Africa.
We have dance and martial arts and songs,
so I wanted to use all those aspects.
- I think that's a perfect segue into perhaps
what I think it will have to be our last question,
which is you're saying the incredible talents,
whether it's in dance and acting.
Can you talk about the casting process?
Because there are two very well known actors,
but I believe the man who played Roman, Kone,
this is his first film.
Can you talk about the casting?
(translator speaking in a foreign language)
(Philippe speaking in a foreign language)
- So yeah, indeed it's the first role for Kone Bakary.
Well, I really liked seeing an actor being born
in front of my camera,
I mean to see the birth of a new actor.
And it's interesting in this precise role
because it's about a character who must learn
how to tell a story and he doesn't know how to do it,
and it was a little bit the same for Kone.
He had to learn how to be an actor in front of my camera.
And so for the casting we worked with
an Ivorian casting director, whose name is Johan Richmond,
and we were not very satisfied with the official casting.
And so we had to go directly in the popular neighborhood
of Abidjan to look for the actors.
And the way we worked, that we worked in a workshop
with the actress for two month.
- Thank you.
I'm getting a virtual signal that I have to wrap up
our Q and A here, but Philippe, I want to thank you so much
for taking the time to do this Q and A
and for sharing the film with our audiences during TIFF.
Shella, thank you so much for your translation as well.
And, (speaking in a foreign language).
(Philippe speaking in a foreign language)
- So thank you all.
Thank you to TIFF.
I just wanna note that this is a Canadian co-production,
the Canadian co-production company
is Peripheria Production, Yanick Letourneau.
The DOP is also Canadian,
and the editor Aube Foglia is also Canadian.
- Wonderful, thank you.
Thank you, merci.