LFF 2010: Director Close-Up

PATRIC CHIHA

LFF 2010 : Domaine

Patric Chiha est né en 1975 à Vienne en Autriche. Après la réalisation de plusieurs courts et moyens-métrages, et documentaires (dont HOME, OÙ SE TROUVE LE CHEF DE LA PRISON ? et LES MESSIEURS) sélectionnés dans de nombreux festivals, il réalise en 2009 son premier long-métrage, DOMAINE, avec Béatrice Dalle et Isaïe Sultan.

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Why did you submit your film to this particular festival ?

I've already shown two films at the festival, "Casa Ugalde" and "Home". So, I know the festival and the people who run it and I like them very much. Even if DOMAINE has no Lebanese subject, I am very happy to show my latest film there. My father is Lebanese, so it touches me a lot to show my films in Beirut.

"Domaine" is your first feature film. How was the shooting ?

For me every film is a film. A short film is also a film. Of course, a feature film requires more time, but in reality it changes nothing.

Somehow, I was very lucky. I dreamed of making this film about the relationship between a woman who says goodbye to the world and a boy who discovers it. And I was free to shoot it as I thought. The producer, the cast and the crew followed me and I could give the movie the shape, which seemed the most right to me. That was very important, because I think that emotion on film has especially to do with shape.

How did you come to choose Beatrice Dalle ?

I don't like the idea of typecasting or casting against type. I simply had a strong desire to film Béatrice Dalle and I wrote the script for her. Before meeting her, I sensed her gentleness and violence were very similar to Nadia's. I was fascinated by her in the way Pierre (Isaïe Sultan) is fascinated by Nadia. The first time I met her, I was waiting for her in a café. She came in and stood smack in the middle of the room, straight as an arrow, between two columns, and I knew that was the film right there. Something about her speaks to me of time, maybe it's this strange impression I get that she has none: no past, no present, no future. I think she immediately understood that's what I was looking for: a violent detachment. It's contradictory, and it truly defines her.

What’s next ?

Currently, I am writing and preparing this new movie, « The dead soldiers », which I will shoot next year in Lebanon and France. The film tells the story of a militiaman who, in 1975, after having killed his prisoner without proper reason, fled Lebanon. 35 years later, he meets in France a young man who looks exactly like his prisoner. The repressed guilt will then resurface and he understands why he killed the prisoner. I will shoot this film in the Lebanese mountains and in the French region Les Landes. I am very excited about shooting in Lebanon.