Born in 1947, it was in Tangier that little Nour-Eddine opened his eyes wide. Baccalaureate in hand, he is teleported to Rabat where he takes a DES in philosophy at the Faculty of Letters. He then taught this subject at the Moulay Youssef high school where he systematically broadcast films to his students on whom he imposed debate after screening. In the mid-1970s, he was promoted to inspector general of philosophy of the kingdom.
In the meantime, his growing cinephile pushed him to create the National Federation of Film Clubs of Morocco which he directed for several years with the militant support of the leftist fringe of the country, an institution in the sights of the services. An uncontrollable bulimic, Nour-Eddine created the Khouribga African Cinema Meetings in 1977, which later received foundation status. His Sunday appearance in 1979 on the airwaves of RTM-Chaîne Inter made him the philosopher of cinematography told to ordinary people. The show “Ecran noir”, complete with credits borrowed from the song “Cinéma” by Claude Nougaro on a composition by Michel Legrand, makes Nour-Eddine the essential path for understanding a visual art.
During the cool years of the following decade, the State decreed the end of the recreation of philosophical and sociological education in the country. Disgusted, Saïl returns the apron to his supervisory ministry. In 1984, he was appointed director of programs within TVM, rewarding Moroccan viewers with unique cinema programming. Two years later, he was a slightly delayed part of the prestigious operation “It moves on TV” wanted by Hassan II, led by the French entrepreneur André Paccard and the playwright Tayeb Saddiki. In the process, Interior Minister Driss Basri inherits the Information portfolio. The stampede is then nameless. If Nour-Eddine Saïl, like others, is no longer around, he is on other shores.
Ethical reasons
The man who wrote the novel “The Shadow of the Chronicler” in 1989, dismissing the letter A, is anything but a resignation. Cinema is in its guts. He works on it without restraint, nourishes it for his people, for the Africans who revere him in Ouagadougou among others, and respect him throughout the world. The former critic of the publications “Maghreb Information”, “Caméra 3” which he launched, of the French magazine “Les Cahiers du cinéma” where he met his future friend Serge Toubiana never stops giving, being celebrated, reinventing himself . The day after the birth of the second Moroccan television channel called 2M International, its president Fouad Filali, then son-in-law of Hassan II and boss of ONA (Omnium Nord-Africain), a royal holding company, called on Nour-Eddine as advisor for the development of his television. For ethical reasons, he quickly left the ship and swam towards Paris where the late Serge Adda, boss of Canal Horizons, was waiting for him. He offered him the position of director of program purchasing and then that of general director of programs and broadcasting. On Canal + France, Saïl installs a capsule dealing with philosophy.
Reorganization of production
In 2000, an “editorial” earthquake shook the management of 2M, sending general director Larbi Belarbi and his close colleagues home. The Minister of Communication at the time, Larbi Messari, named Nour-Eddine Saïl boss of the channel. The agitator quickly created a morning news show which fizzled, set up a committee to grant aid for the production of TV films and set up Radio 2M. The man was fired three years later after meeting his future wife Nadia Larguet and inherited at the last minute the position of general director of the Moroccan Cinematographic Center (CCM) where his mark is indelible to this day. He overhauled production aid, established the production of three short films for the acquisition of the professional card, put an end to the informal sector and increased national production from five films per year to twenty-five. During his reign at the head of the CCM, Saïl was appointed deputy vice-president of the Marrakech International Film Festival Foundation and decided to install the former itinerant national film festival in his city (Tangier). 2014, year of disillusionment. Nour-Eddine is landed by the disconcerting PJDist minister of communication Mohamed Khalfi for the benefit of a call for applications which leads Sarim El Haq Fassi Fihri to the helm.
Since then, the multi-linguist Saïl has been on several fronts. Treasurer of the international network for the distribution of European cinema known as Europa Cinemas, he is an advisor to several international festivals and works for transmission. In Morocco, he attends all the events he deems appropriate to support. A few months ago, he said to an audience of Casablanca students: “If you want to succeed in this profession, master at least three languages. Four is better. » The man with acerbic humor and disconcerting frankness dares what interests him with the gaze of an old modernist: “We walk backwards. In the 1970s, film clubs were our reason for existing as cultural agitators. Everything went through the films. When a copy arrived, it had ten screenings in as many cities. A record! She traveled at the pace of our means and this gave rise to passionate debates,” recounts, less than two years ago, the enthusiast in front of an audience of new heads of Moroccan film clubs. In contact with this disturbing scholar, we are treated to his intellectual emancipation, embellished in bursts with quotes from Kubrick, Spinoza, Eco, Nietzche, Morin and Godard. Why keep it simple when you can happily make it complicated.
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