On the sidelines of the screening of his film, The thousand and one days of Hajj Edmondat the heart of the 21st edition of the Marrakech International Film Festival (FIFM), Simone Bitton, director recognized for her poignant documentaries, granted an exclusive interview to Hespress FR.
With rare sensitivity, she returns to her meticulous approach to capturing the multiple facets of Edmond Amran El Maleh: committed writer, progressive intellectual and essential figure of Moroccan culture. Between moving testimonies, artistic choices and editing challenges, Bitton reveals behind the scenes of a vibrant cinematic portrait.
What was your approach to capturing the multiple facets of Edmond Amran El Maleh, a literary, political and artistic figure?
Yes, it wasn’t easy. In addition, he had a long life, a full 93 years. His life is full as an egg. He was prolific until the end of his life, still producing texts. Of course, it wasn’t possible to fit everything into one film. Furthermore, he had hundreds of friends, often younger than him, which means that many are still with us. Making choices was therefore very difficult, a real delicate task. A lot went into editing.
For me, it was essential to highlight his literary side, because even if his name is known, few people have really read his works. In Morocco, when his name is mentioned, people know that he was a remarkable figure: a patriotic Jew, committed to independence, progressive, writer. But his texts remain little known. So I wanted to bring them to the forefront.
One of the difficult choices was to decide whether I was going to have an actor read passages of his texts or, as I ultimately did, ask his friends, present in the film, to read them. These are people who talk about him, but who also took up the challenge of reading a few paragraphs in front of the camera.
It wasn’t easy for them, but I find that it gives the film an intimate and quite touching dimension. They are perfectly French-speaking Moroccans, but you can hear Morocco in their voices. I think Edmond would have really liked that.
There is a part in your film that captured the public’s attention: the testimony of a woman affirming that Edmond was a “Muslim”, because she considered him as such. Was it a desire on your part to capture this tolerance embodied by Edmond?
In any case, Edmond was the very embodiment of tolerance. I always say that in Morocco, it was not about simple coexistence. It was not just living next to each other, but living together and building together. We created Moroccan culture together, and we are all responsible for it, without distinction. These were not two cultures which coexisted, but which interpenetrated each other. Edmond embodied this perfectly.
The person you are talking about is Lkbira, who took care of his housekeeping and cooking. She was, like many women of her condition in Morocco, almost illiterate. She didn’t read him as a writer, but she understood him immediately. With her words, she describes it better than many intellectuals. For example, she doesn’t know what it means to be a communist, but she says of him: ” For him, all human beings were equal.” There is no more beautiful definition.
-When she talks about religion, she says that he came to her house, to her family, in Salé, to celebrate Eid Al-Adha. He was their guest of honor, and they were waiting for him to arrive to slaughter the sheep. These are scenes that remind me of my childhood, when, as a little girl, I attended the sheep ritual with our Muslim neighbors. I asked him, jokingly: “ But what was he doing there? He was not a Muslim!“. And she answered me: “ But he was Muslim, Jewish, Moroccan. He was part of us« .
Through the testimonies and archives, have you discovered aspects of Edmond El Maleh that surprised you or particularly touched you during the making of the film?
I didn’t find out, because I already knew a lot about him. But I learned, even if I knew his work well, particularly his writings concerning plastic art, which were a little hermetic to me. During the making of the film, by immersing myself in these writings, I discovered things that I didn’t know, neither about him nor in general. This brought me closer to an area that I had little control over.
How did you capture the multiple facets of Edmond Amran El Maleh, between literature, politics and art?
The testimony of a woman describing him as a “Muslim” struck the public. Was this a choice to reflect his tolerance?
Have the testimonies and archives revealed aspects of Edmond El Maleh that surprised or moved you?
Are you currently working on another project?
Let’s just say I’m still thinking about it. It’s quite vague at the moment, but it will come.
