« It’s not the coat that makes the musketeer, it’s the heart that beats inside. » Sabrina Ouazani, with her sense of formula, gives us a good definition of “All for one”, the new film by Houda Benyamina.
In this ultra-feminist version of The Three Musketeers by Dumas, the actress from “La Source Femmes” and “Kung-Fu Zohra” is this time Athos, on a special mission to save the Queen of France alongside Oulaya in particular Amamra (D’Artagnan) and Deborah Lukumuena (Porthos).
And don’t think that we are here in the register of comedy: in a France of the 17e century where, for a woman, disguising herself as a man is punishable by death, this cloak and dagger film which devours the great outdoors is also for Houda Benyamina the opportunity to settle once and for all her score with virilism of all times and the macho stereotypes that our society puts in the heads of young boys.
“I knew that with Houda’s radicalism, we would go quite far in questioning gender and it was a challenge that interested me. And then it was re-appropriate the fantasy of making a swashbuckling film. With my personal and social background, I already couldn’t allow myself to dream of becoming an actress, let alone becoming a musketeer…”she tells us during the film’s premiere at the Cinébanlieue festival, of which she is a loyal fan.
Frida in the dodge
And the one who lived at the time in the city of 4000 de La Courneuve looks back over her 23-year career. “At no time was becoming an actress a dream, not even a secret one. Growing up in the suburbs, I would never have allowed myself to dream of that, it was simply inaccessible”remembers the one who only went to the casting of L’Esquive, at 13, pushed by her mother who saw it as a summer activity like any other, “like going to the pool or the park”.
But you have to believe that the magic that Krimo or Lydia discover in L’Esquive, this magic of words and roles that transport you far, has worked: from Frida, little Sabrina has become Nejma, in “Adieu Gary” or even Rand in “Inch’Allah”, all roles that are dear to him.
“The roles that I was offered followed the evolution of French cinema and society. It’s true that at the start, it was quite cliché. But thanks to directors who wrote more complex roles, thanks also to a wave of actors who tried to get out of the boxes in which we were put, it opened up. Today’s cinema fortunately resembles society as it is, with its different origins and physiques, even if there is still a long way to go. “, says this child of Algerian immigrants, both from Sidi-Bel Abbès.
Among these roles, her very first, that of Frida in L’Esquive, filmed at the Cité du Franc-Moisin in Saint-Denis, obviously remains apart. “I remember the feeling I felt in my stomach when I started playing: an immeasurable feeling of freedom. What ? Do I have the right to be whoever I want? What, I have the right to piss off my brother on stage when usually I could never say anything to him? I immediately hoped it would continue and it continued. »
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict (Inch’Allah), domestic violence (Kung-Fu Zohra), the dreams of the working class (Farewell Gary): so many themes that this actress has encountered and interpreted. The stigmatization of the suburbs too, addressed by a comedy like “So far so good” by Bondynois Mohamed Hamidi.
“A subject that is close to my heart”
In this comedy shot at her home in La Courneuve, Sabrina Ouazani plays Leïla, a young woman reluctant to return to the suburbs of her childhood. The subject: to be exempt from taxes, an unscrupulous business manager domiciles his company in a free zone in the suburbs without actually settling there. But when the labor inspectorate discovers the pot of roses, it puts the deal in his hands: play the game to the end and really settle down in the suburbs or repay all his tax exemptions…
“I went for it because I knew that with Mohamed Hamidi, there would be an evolution between the vision of Parisians on the suburbs at the start and the one we have on arrival. Breaking these stereotypes, that’s why I make cinema”explains the one who regrets that certain unscrupulous media always target the same scapegoats. “How many media regularly show us people from the suburbs who are successful or simply who work and aspire to live normally? Not much »deplores the one whose father was a warehouse worker.
The suburbs could also be the subject of Sabrina Ouazani’s debut behind the camera.“There is a subject that is close to my heart, because it marked me in my adolescence, it is urban renewal and how it is experienced by residents”she blurted. In 2011, the Balzac Tower where she grew up with her brother Djamel and her sister Sarah was demolished as part of the ANRU. At first glance, good news for everyone. “But what is great for many, urban renewal, Greater Paris, is a heartbreak for a lot of residents”says the one who regularly returns to La Courneuve, as recently as this summer when she carried the Olympic flame.
And remember that many residents suffered from the uncertainty linked to rehousing, from not having been sufficiently consulted or from losing their social relationships overnight. This was the case for his mother, relocated to Drancy, but far from her previous friends. “If I make a film about it, it will also be to say this: we are not pawns”. “It’s not the jacket that makes the musketeer”, we had no doubt, Sabrina Ouazani’s sword is fine and sharp.
Christophe Lehousse
Photo: ©Susy Lagrange
