When I first met the French African filmmaker in Marrakech, she exuded a kindness and resolve beyond expected. Now, on our second chance encounter thanks to the BFI London Film Festival, I got to interview her briefly and discover her talent and wisdom.
Last December, as I sat to lunch within the idyllic setting of the Beldi Country Club where the Atlas Workshops are held, just ten minutes from the center of Marrakech, I found to my left Linda Lô. My seat had been handpicked by the Workshops Head Hédi Zardi, and right next to Lô sat Palestinian superstar Hiam Abbass. The chance encounter, very much choreographed by the magical powers of Zardi, felt just right — meant to be.
The Atlas Workshops are the industry sidebar of the Marrakech International Film Festival, where filmmakers with upcoming projects come together with industry insiders and mentors to finalize their vision and secure the financing necessary to complete their films.
Fast forward nearly a year later and I met up with Lô again by chance — “luck by chance” as Bombaikers would say — as I pointed to her name on a list of available talents at the LFF notorious Filmmakers Afternoon Teas. When the publicist in charge brought Lô over, she immediately recognized me, as did I, but she also placed us in Marrakech, seated at a table, where we talked about her project in development titled Lucky Girl.
In London, she is presenting her short We Had Fun in the Shorts Competition of LFF. The film, born as a “proof of concept” for the upcoming first feature for Lô and sets the story for Lucky Girl. It’s Bordeaux, France, Christmas Eve in 1987. Three siblings, Linda (5), Biram (9) and Roger (20) live away from their mother who stayed in Gabon. Roger, as the eldest, is the reluctant caretaker and, as any boy his age, also wants to live his own romantic life. When he leaves Linda and Biram alone at home for a weekend away with his girlfriend, trouble ensues.
The synopsis for the feature read: “While on vacation in Bordeaux, four-year-old Lili and her brothers, aged nine and twenty, are left to fend for themselves when their flamboyant mother goes home to her restaurant- disco business in Gabon without them. Torn between the desire to return to her lost paradise and the duty to seize the chance to make her mother proud, Lili grows up developing strategies to survive, find success, and return to the bright lights of her native Africa.” And both films are very personal, autobiographical almost for Lô.
In We Had Fun, Lô’s keen eye for details and simple storytelling makes us, the audience, feel like flies on the wall of a very intimate portrait of a real family, yet one where love, devotion and duty play a central role in their relationship dynamic. That’s what makes her upcoming feature such an anticipated title for yours truly.
So while I await with bated breath for Lucky Girl to be a finished film, I leave you with a short Selfie Interview with a filmmaker to watch.
Top image courtesy of Unifrance, used with permission.