Les FilmsdelaCapitaine, LimanFilm, ZDF/ARTE, and with the participationand withthe of Gloria Films, in coproduction with in my favorite fabric SophieDulacistribution, Katuh Studio, DublinFilms, Scheduled for Relea se inthe Summerof2018 present a filmby

Gaya Jiji

Design graphique : synopsis Damascus, March 2011. In the midst of the rumblings of revolution, Nahla, a young woman of 25, is torn between her desire for freedom and her hopes of leaving the country through an arranged marriage with Samir, a Syrian who has emigrated to the United States. However, Samir prefers her younger and more docile sister, Myriam. Consequently, Nahla grows closer to her new neighbor, Madame Jiji, who has just moved into her building in order to open a brothel.

interview with GAYA JIJI

Why the title My Favorite Fabric? Is there a common point that links these Is this self-censorship at the heart of Nahla’s Because the film is about the senses. Fabric experiences? inner revolt (which moreover is represented touches the body. My Favorite Fabric refers Yes. That of a search for identity, and I’m not in surprising ways) and her search for to the heroine Nahla’s desire that her body be just talking about sexual identity. We lived in fulfillment (which passes through her touched by a particular fabric, a desire that is a society that repressed our desires, all our sensual contact with fabric)? a choice. Her choice. My story concerns this desires. Consequently, living in a country like This type of restrictive society forces you girl’s relationship with her body. Everything Syria was difficult for women. First there is the to question yourself: Who am I? What do I stems from this. It is a sort of affirmation, a perception, or rather the “non-perception” really possess? You realize that you possess way for her to say to herself and others, “This of our sexuality, the obsession with female nothing. You have nothing and, based on that touch is the one I truly desire!” virginity, where one absolutely cannot have awareness, one is pushed, like Nahla, to try sexual relations before marriage, etc. These everything because you have nothing to lose Would you say that the film has a specifically are things I lived with, and they are at the heart and one must remain alive! To follow through Eastern and feminist approach to sensuality? of the film.I n it, I develop my relationship with with things to the very end. As a woman filmmaker from the Middle my sexuality. How I discovered the questions East, the question of the feminine is key. It of the flesh. What does it mean to have a Nahla certainly has a strong personality. Is is obviously an intimate one. As far as that sexual relation with a man? To take pleasure she dissatisfied? is concerned, My Favorite Fabric is a very in it? But, in a broader perspective, and first She has a rather tiresome job. Things are personal film. I am Nahla! and foremost, it is an affirmation of the place complicated with her family, the rapport accorded to us, and consequently about between these women. The father is dead. What was the situation in Syria, in Damascus, who I am in a society where I’m deprived of It’s a very closed, very feminine world. Then at the time when your film takes place? everything. I have no freedom of expression. she is “presented” to a potential husband. She When I began to write the film in Damascus, I don’t have the physical freedom to do what thinks to herself, “Fine, perhaps this will be a at the end of 2010 through 2011, the civil I want. I don’t even have the right to dream, way out.” But, deep inside, she knows that it war was beginning. Writing had become because the most favorable dream that a makes no sense, that it’s not by participating my only escape from the overwhelming woman of the Middle East can have is to get in an “arranged” marriage that she will find fear that gripped us all. I participated in the married and have children. freedom. So she seeks another way. Once very beginning of the revolts. It was clearly again, she feels she has nothing to lose, so she impossible to gloss over this context, to sweep What were these forbidden or impossible should follow through on her wild ideas, face it under the rug. Unconsciously the violence dreams that led to My Favorite Fabric? herself, her demons, her fears. The heroine of the war, the oppression, the rebellion – all My dream was to make films, which is very is trying to find her place within her family, had a bearing with the inner violence which I complicated in Syria. I felt that I did not even and, by extension, within her country. She chose to commit to paper. This film became have the right to dream these grand dreams, is a woman who wants freedom, and, even my intensely personal interpretation of the even less to express them, to proclaim what I more, she wants power! And this manifests beginnings of this terrible conflict. It’s not felt like saying. Even on a political level, one by having sex for the first time, without any about a documentary vision, but is well and does not have the right to an opinion. And I am romantic overtones. Furthermore, there is truly my interpretation, my reflection upon extremely interested in politics! The same is even a certain malaise during this scene. In this this situation that we see, for example, through true of religion. There is not much that can be case, this young woman is also manipulative, the character of the soldier. Personal history said. This was really difficult for me to stomach but this is necessary. and political history cannot be separated. It within my family, with my mother – above all was necessary to show that life went on, but with my mother. That is what I’ve recreated in Why did you choose to have your story take at what price? the film, this relationship which is demanding, place in a world of women? and paradoxically tender as well, so quite I come from a milieu where women have a great What was the genesis of the story in this complex. It’s a love-hate relationship. deal of authority. They are a major presence. film? In fact, this is part of the schizophrenia of My personal experience, along with that of my Eastern society – within the family, women girlfriends led to my thinking on this subject. have a lot of power, they make decisions, and yet, at the same time, they are deprived of many things, namely sexual freedom. Consequently, I was always surrounded by our society imposes upon them. They are Eastern actress would accept this?” Moreover, strong women. Men were present, but on the no freer than the women. The suitor in my the film really doesn’t stand up without those periphery, in the background. Everything was film, with his mind full of archaic principles, scenes, it has no meaning. Subsequently, all based upon decisions made by the women. despite his youth, develops a fascination with my attempts at casting Syrian actresses fell In the film, each character in this family is Nahla. She does not correspond at all to his through. No one wanted to perform those defending something. The mother defends expectations, and he is afraid of her. He is also sex scenes. However I do live in France and tradition. The little sister is the revolutionary taken aback by her, and tempted by her way I met Manal Issa. I had seen her in Danielle of the family, a tomboy who articulates a of being, to the point of entering her world, Arbid’s Peur de Rien and Bertrand Bonello’s very overtly determined discourse, whereas even if only temporarily, because he does Nocturama, two films where I felt her the heroine, Nahla, seeks to define herself not possess the same courage as she. In this performance was as natural as it was full of in a more intimate manner. In the end, all aspect, I find that women as a rule are more life. She is a true actress and a real professional of these characters are representative of courageous than men. who gives her all. Manal completely owns her Syrian society at the time, victims who work. She possesses a true understanding of rebelled on various levels against her métier and she was ready to the totalitarian regime, but also jump in, and not only regarding the against a suffocating family question of nudity. structure. Each one is persuaded that they are making one of the What particular methods did you others happy. The three male make use of as a director? characters in the film merely One of my choices was to film gravitate around this maelstrom the “in camera” scenes in closed of feminine desires and power. environments. The camera thus acts as Nahla’s internal voice. When There is also Madame Jiji, the she is in her family apartment upstairs neighbor, who also downstairs, I use still shots to manifests a certain authority but convey the sense of straitlaced is a free woman. What is her role? tension between the characters. I created a personality completely As soon as we head upstairs to opposite to the mother. This is a Jiji’s, the camera is freer and there woman who has created a space is more movement. This conveys where everything is permitted, the heroine’s state of mind as she everything is possible. I wanted begins to free herself, and develop. her to be a neighbor in order to create a link between the two And your use of color? worlds, a world above and a world In terms of colors, the family below. When Nahla goes upstairs apartment is consciously done in to Jiji’s, she crosses a threshold dull colors to reflect the dullness of in terms of who she is, her being, this family life, the sense of holding her sexuality. As she mounts the one’s breath in a permanent state stairs, it is like she is crossing a of hold. At Madame Jiji’s, the colors border. It is also a crossing over on are more varied, joyous, stronger. a psychological level. She says to herself, “This is the moment where The sound is also quite my true and inner personality, of particular – such as the rubbing which I as yet know nothing, will of the fabric, which gives the come to the surface and express sensation that we too are touching itself. I am in search of adventure it. ­ and the discovery of myself.” She From the moment I began writing is trying to liberate herself from the screenplay, the sound took on her family, her country, her fears, a life of its own, it is a character in in order to be reborn as her true and of itself. I needed to convey self. to the audience the illusion of senses that are not generally In opposition to Madame Jiji, a cinematographic, such as touch symbol of freedom, you created and smell. In this case, the touch of the character of the suitor. What the fabric as it’s caressed. Sound is his significance? was an ideal tool to accomplish He is a character that I know all too well! This More than a women’s film, wouldn’t My this. As was the use of silences to underline character again comes from my reality. I have Favorite Fabric be considered more of a film the difficulty of living in a family apartment experienced this situation – several times with a feminine bent? where no one expresses themselves. We also even! I have found myself before a potential Yes, in the sense that it’s a film that cannot did a lot of work to create ambiance. suitor, a Syrian from America, who had come exist without men. They are very important. over to find himself a “good” wife in his Also, in the way that these women’s rapport The external ambiance of the conflict that is country of origin. Each time, I’m struck by with their bodies is shown, one might perhaps approaching? the fact by how much these men, who have say that it’s from a feminine perspective. All the external context of the war, with the left very young to live in freer countries, with Then the sentiments – once again Nahla’s exception of the end, is recounted through more liberal mores, have remained so narrow relationship with her skin, the way she explores the soundtrack. We don’t see much of what and confined in their little worlds. Also, even it with fabric, then with a man, but also with is going on outside. The sound tells that story. though things have evolved somewhat in the rejection of this man, that she does not Syria since they emigrated, they always arrive know how to love, and who, in the end, does Do you miss Syria? thinking that things have remained the same not choose her. Finally, there are the relations Terribly. It’s like my heroine when someone for the last twenty years. between the women themselves, touched tells her “you never loved this country!” – she with rivalries, deep love, and a tinge of hatred. does, in fact, think of leaving it. This is what I Did you wish to show that this character is I think that a woman would describe this did, because a part of me always hated that also not free? paradox and this particular brand of violence place. I always knew that my life would be Yes! These men are prisoners of tradition. without any filter, without embarrassment, but lived in a country where women had more They come to Syria looking for a wife that they rather with a direct approach. scope, but this was also with the knowledge imagine will be virginal and docile, because that I could return when I wished to. Now, this they have no desire for a liberated woman. Tell us about your choice of Manal Issa for is impossible. I can no longer return to Syria, In the film, this somewhat young man is also the role of Nahla, a Franco-Lebanese actress, I cannot revisit the places of my childhood, oppressed without realizing it. He is trapped rather than a Syrian actress? and since I’m someone who is very nostalgic, in the past, he is also a victim of sorts. What It was very difficult to find a Middle Eastern my memories, my Syrian recollections give I mean to say is that Middle Eastern men are actress for this role, notably because there me pain, because, in a sense, the civil war has victims of how they think their virility should were scenes of nudity. Even at the writing laid waste to my past. This is a very disturbing manifest itself, based upon the image that stage, I had asked myself, “What Middle feeling. BIOGRAPHIEs Gaya Jiji MANAL ISSA (Nahla) ULA TABARI (Madame Jiji)

Manal Issa is a Franco-Lebanese actress who Ula Tabari is a Palestinian actress and director works in French, English and Arabic. Born in who was born in Nazareth and lives in Paris. France, she left to live in Lebanon at the age of After training in the theater and at the Beaux-Arts, three. After the 2006 war, she returned to France she began working in film as Elia Souleiman’s and followed a course of study in industrial assistant, then went on to direct the casting and engineering at the ISTIA School of Engineering play the lead in two of his films, Le Rêve Arabe in Angers, where she was spotted by director and Chronique d’Une Disparition. Danielle Arbid and selected to play the lead in In 2001, she made two documentaries: Enquête her film Peur de Rien with Vincent Lacoste, Paul Personnelle and Jinga 48 as well as the short Hamy and Dominique Blanc. Her work in that film Diaspora, part of the OfficialS election at the film won her a best actress award at the Festival Venice Film Festival in 2005. des Arcs, as well as an Angela Award at the She speaks Arabic, English, French and Hebrew Subtitle Spotlight European Film Festival. She and also collaborates on several feature films as was also nominated for the 2017 César Awards a dialogue coach for a number of actors. Most in the category Most Promising Actress. A few recently she worked on Sameh Zoabi’s second months later, Bertrand Bonello approached her film, Tel Aviv on Fire, where she worked both as Photo © Olivier Julien for his film Nocturama with Finnegan Oldfield, a dialogue coach for Lubna Azabal and as an Gaya Jiji is a Syrian filmmaker who has been Vincent Rottiers and Adèle Haenel. The film actress, playing the role of Sara. based in Paris since 2012. She has made several was presented in several festivals, including In 2017, she was chosen to play Madame Jiji in My short films, including Matin, Midi, Soir…et Matin Toronto and San Sebastián. Issa lives between Favorite Fabric, selected for Un Certain Regard (19’, 2011), which has garnered nominations at Paris and Lebanon and has been working on at the 2018 Cannes Films Festival. several festivals throughout the world. During several projects: in 2017, she appeared in Nadim the 2016 Festival de Cannes, she received the Tabet’s film One of These Days, then, in 2018, she Young Talent Women in Motion Award, as part of has been featured in no less than five films:V eit Kering’s program. My Favorite Fabric is her first Helmer’s The Bra, Sébastien Betbeder’s Ulysse et feature-length film. This year it has been selected Mona, Félix Moati’s Deux Fils, Eva Ionesco’s Une for Un Certain Regard and the film is also in the Jeunesse Dorée, and finally Gaya Jiji’sMy Favorite running for the 2018 Camera d’Or. Fabric, part of the official selection of Un Certain Regard at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival.

cast lis t technical crew

Manal Issa nahla Director Gaya Jiji Ula Tabari Madame Jiji Screenplay Gaya Jiji in collaboration with Eiji Yamazaki Souraya Baghdadi salwa Original Soundtrack peer Kleinschmidt Image Antoine Héberlé Mariah Tannoury Myriam Sound Murat Şenürkmez Nathalie Issa Line Sets Nadide Argun Saad Lostan samir Costumes Tuba Ataç Makeup Janina Kuhlmann Wissam Fares salem Montage Jeanne Oberson Amani Ibrahim shirin Mixing Jocelyn Robert Metin Akdülger The man of Nahla’s dreams Production Manager Diane Thin, Aslı Erdem 1ere assistant Director Burcu Bilgiç Script Sandrine Cayron Screenings at Cannes Production Laurent Lavolé – Gloria Films Coproduction Vanessa Ciszewski – Katuh Studio / David Hurst – Dublin Films Friday May 11 Eiji Yamazaki – Les Films de la Capitaine / Nadir Öperli – Liman Film / ZDF/Das kleine Fernsehspiel In collaboration with ARTE, with the support of Eurimages, Centre national du cinéma et de l’image animée, 4:45PM - Salle Debussy Institut Français / German Federal Film Board, Région Nouvelle Aquitaine / ALCA, Fonds IMPACT, ANGOA, Length : 1h35 Women in Motion – Kering; Atelier Cinéfondation, Dubai Film Connection – DIFF 2015, Screenplay develop- Nationalities : France, Germany, Turkey ment grant from the Festival d’Amiens, Meeting on the bridge – Istanbul Film Festival, Fabrique Cinéma de l’Institut français 2014, Lab Méditalents 2

INTERNATIONAL PRESS INTERNATIONAL SALES FRENCH DISTRIBUTION PROMOTION PROGRAM PLANNING Rendez-Vous Urban Distribution Intl Sophie Dulac Distribution Vincent Marti PARIS : Arnaud Tignon Viviana Andriani & Aurélie Dard Paris - Los Angeles Michel Zana +33 1 44 43 46 03 / +33 6 62 02 77 36 +33 1 44 43 46 04 / +33 6 64 23 83 66 +33 1 42 66 36 35 / +33 6 80 16 81 39 14, rue du 18 août +33 1 44 43 46 00 / +33 6 10 81 18 48 [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] 93100 Montreuil FRANCE [email protected] Margot Aufranc PROVINCE : Nina Kawakami [email protected] +33 1 48 70 46 56 60, rue Pierre Charron +33 1 75 44 65 18 / +33 6 21 01 61 38 +33 1 44 43 46 05 / +33 6 84 44 30 88 [email protected] 75008 Paris [email protected] [email protected] www.urbandistrib.com

At Cannes: Riviera L2 Gloria Films P roduction P hotos ©