Dun. “Chalal plural memory”, a film about the Moroccan artist

The rural center of Dun is offering an evening on the theme of Morocco, on June 1, with the screening of the documentary “Chalal, plurielle memory”, meal and Gnawa electro music concert.

For this evening, director Stéphane Valentin will come to present his film on the Berber artist Chalal at 7:30 p.m. The screening will be followed by a Moroccan meal concocted by chef Yassine Gomez and a concert at 10 p.m. of electro gnawa music to end the evening with rhythm.

Stéphane Valentin is a very committed independent director who has directed numerous films. He began his career in the 2000s with his film “La Verita Desplegado”, winner of the Young Challenge. Several documentaries receive prizes such as “Génocidé”, special mention from the jury at the Clermont-Ferrand festival, and “Bodega, Buf de Vida” on the Occitan bagpipes, prize from the Charles Cros academy. “Land of Sumud”, his first film on Palestine, released in 2009, aims to show a Palestine different from the tragic picture usually painted, just like “Ramallah’s Maradona” about the team of female football players produced in 2013.

An exceptional meeting

Stéphane Valentin is always keen to provoke debate through his films. “Chalal, plural memory” gives here an intimate portrait of the Moroccan painter: “This film is the fruit of an exceptional encounter. By pure chance, I met the artist in the Moroccan Atlas , his painting and his personality fascinated me.”

The documentary traces the artist’s commitment to bringing Berber culture to life. He evokes with great poetry the artistic style of the painter, his very contemporary original approach and his desire to share a multicultural vision of his country and its roots: “Abu Ghani Ben Chalal never stops telling the story of his country through his works, transmitting his culture with multiple influences is what drives him.”

The artist’s works are called “plural memory” because they are all composed of symbols which are linked to Berber, Jewish, Arab and French cultures: “He inserts symbols and inscriptions from different languages. While each person questions his own identity, his paintings show that we are all born from a symbiosis of several cultures.”.

The original soundtrack of the documentary is composed by an Ariège musician Tryst temps: “Music, words, painting and images of Morocco form a whole to discover the art and words of this humanist artist.”