REMI LANGE. INTERVIEW. GERMAN GAY MAGAZINE. 2004.
You are European. How did you become interested in Maghreb gays?
I fell in love with a twenty-year old boy from Algerian origins in France a few years ago, Khader, and I discovered it was quite difficult for him o live his own homosexuality because of the his family pressure. When he explained to me why, I discovered a world I did not know at all : the Islamic world, and how difficult it is for a Muslim boy to live his own desires in the suburbs of Paris for example...
Do you have gay Arabian friends? And what did you know about their problems before you made the movie? And how did you find out so many things about Maghreb gay society?
After discovering the real difficulties a Muslim gay boy had to face, I decided to make a sort of militant film about Islam & homosexuality, because nothing had been done before on this subject, and because I think it could try to make things change (prejudices, aggressiveness against gay Muslim boys, etc.). But I did not want to make a didactic movie, I wanted to make a romantic love-story which could at the same time tell my message... I read a lot of books on sexuality & Islam and began writing the story of this sociology student making a documentary on Islam and homosexuality. In this way, he could make mistakes which are in fact the mistakes I actually made because I am not a journalist and I have my own personal point of view which could not be an average journalistic opinion...
The movie is filmed with Mini-DV - so the spectator has the impression that it is a documentary. Are some parts of it taken from real life? Or is it all fiction?The interviews are real. The interviewed boys are telling what they actually think about Islam & homosexuality (except the exhibitionist boy at the beginning of the movie). All what is said about Islam and homosexuality is also true –the texts read by Karim and Farid in the movie-, it is a combination of all what I read about Islam and homosexuality... The rest if pure fiction...
How did you find Farid and Karim? And did they ever act in front of the camera before?
Karim was introduced to me by a friend of mine. After we went to a gay Tea Dance in Paris and I could see him dancing in a very sensual way, that’s the reason why I asked him if he would like to play a gay dancer in a film about homosexuality and Islam, and he accepted... Farid was a friend of mine, I had met him at the French Paris Gay Pride in 1998. Farid had played on stage (theatre plays) before, but had never played in front of a camera. Karim had never played before, that’s his first role, but although everybody tells him that he’s very natural, i.e. a good actor, he does not want to become a professional actor... That’s his first and last role I think. For him it was a good experience, that’s all.
Did something like this happen to Karim in real life?
I don’t know his real life and that’s his life, I am not supposed to talk about him at his own place...
Did you get reactions from the gay maghreb community?
No, because the movie was shown only 4 times in French theatres, in gay Festivals, was not theatrically released, and the people who bought the French dvd were only gay people I think.... The only thing I can say about this is the following thing... Just after finishing the movie, I was interviewed by a French Radio dedicated to people from Maghreb origins, and the sub-director of this radio discovered that the French journalist interviewed a boy about Islam and homosexuality, so he went in the room and said to the journalist that the big chief would not be pleased at all... So I have the feeling that the French Maghrebian people does not really like talking about this.... Everybody knows it does happen, but nobody wants to talk about it, just like in Maghreb countries... And if you’re Arab and say you’re gay in the suburbs of any city of France, you are rejected by your own family, so most gay Arab boys go to Paris and leave their suburbian family environment to find some freedom...
Do you think that white gay men have prejudices against Arabian gays? Or are they “objects of desire”?
The average white gay man or woman in France has prejudices against Arabian people in general (remember Le Pen was the third man in the French last Presidential elections...). So most average straight French men and women have double prejudices against Arab gay boys... Because the average French man is also homophobic... And Arab gay boys are viwed as “objects of desire” for the average French gay boy, who has post-colonialist attitudes towards them...
Do you know if there are lesbians from the maghreb area?
As many in any area in the world I guess ! I don’t know, I am a film-maker, not a specialist about Maghreb and homosexuality...
Do you know if openly gay muslim men in France are religious?
No, I don’t...
In the film, one of the protagonists says that Arabic society accepts the “active guy”, but hates the one who gets fucked. Calls him “attai”. Do you think that gay Arabs in Paris have the same attitude? No, not at all. All gay arab boys are as “open” as the average gay French boy. But actually, a lot of them say they are active, that’s what I could notice in by talking to them on the internet meeting web sites... So maybe there are traces on this division between passive & active men on their behaviour...
Did the oasis Siwa mentioned in the film really exist? And how did you find out about it?
Yes it does... A friend of mine, Alain Burosse, who used to be the director of Canal + short programs, had talked of this to me, and made a documentary movie about it : “SIWA”, shown on Arte... Go to http://www.gayegypt.com/gayguidtosiw.html for more information about Siwa and Alain Burosse’s movie. But I never went to Siwa...
On your webpage I saw that your other film “Mes Parents” is something like a Gore-Movie. Are you a fan of that genre?
Yes I am. I should say : “I used to be”. But I still like watching good horror movies –which can also tell messages about life in general- but they’re more and more are...
What are your future plans?
To make new movies (I shot a new movie last summer, called “the Sex of Madam H”, “Madame H” being a real famous “drag-queen” in Paris I am kidnapping – I am playing my own role -to discover her actual sex and film her... see her web-site www.madameh.com ), to dvd publish works of film-makers I like and we can not find in France. That’s the reason why I created my own company : “LES FILMS DE L’ANGE”...
Paris, march 2004.
You are European. How did you become interested in Maghreb gays?
I fell in love with a twenty-year old boy from Algerian origins in France a few years ago, Khader, and I discovered it was quite difficult for him o live his own homosexuality because of the his family pressure. When he explained to me why, I discovered a world I did not know at all : the Islamic world, and how difficult it is for a Muslim boy to live his own desires in the suburbs of Paris for example...
Do you have gay Arabian friends? And what did you know about their problems before you made the movie? And how did you find out so many things about Maghreb gay society?
After discovering the real difficulties a Muslim gay boy had to face, I decided to make a sort of militant film about Islam & homosexuality, because nothing had been done before on this subject, and because I think it could try to make things change (prejudices, aggressiveness against gay Muslim boys, etc.). But I did not want to make a didactic movie, I wanted to make a romantic love-story which could at the same time tell my message... I read a lot of books on sexuality & Islam and began writing the story of this sociology student making a documentary on Islam and homosexuality. In this way, he could make mistakes which are in fact the mistakes I actually made because I am not a journalist and I have my own personal point of view which could not be an average journalistic opinion...
The movie is filmed with Mini-DV - so the spectator has the impression that it is a documentary. Are some parts of it taken from real life? Or is it all fiction?The interviews are real. The interviewed boys are telling what they actually think about Islam & homosexuality (except the exhibitionist boy at the beginning of the movie). All what is said about Islam and homosexuality is also true –the texts read by Karim and Farid in the movie-, it is a combination of all what I read about Islam and homosexuality... The rest if pure fiction...
How did you find Farid and Karim? And did they ever act in front of the camera before?
Karim was introduced to me by a friend of mine. After we went to a gay Tea Dance in Paris and I could see him dancing in a very sensual way, that’s the reason why I asked him if he would like to play a gay dancer in a film about homosexuality and Islam, and he accepted... Farid was a friend of mine, I had met him at the French Paris Gay Pride in 1998. Farid had played on stage (theatre plays) before, but had never played in front of a camera. Karim had never played before, that’s his first role, but although everybody tells him that he’s very natural, i.e. a good actor, he does not want to become a professional actor... That’s his first and last role I think. For him it was a good experience, that’s all.
Did something like this happen to Karim in real life?
I don’t know his real life and that’s his life, I am not supposed to talk about him at his own place...
Did you get reactions from the gay maghreb community?
No, because the movie was shown only 4 times in French theatres, in gay Festivals, was not theatrically released, and the people who bought the French dvd were only gay people I think.... The only thing I can say about this is the following thing... Just after finishing the movie, I was interviewed by a French Radio dedicated to people from Maghreb origins, and the sub-director of this radio discovered that the French journalist interviewed a boy about Islam and homosexuality, so he went in the room and said to the journalist that the big chief would not be pleased at all... So I have the feeling that the French Maghrebian people does not really like talking about this.... Everybody knows it does happen, but nobody wants to talk about it, just like in Maghreb countries... And if you’re Arab and say you’re gay in the suburbs of any city of France, you are rejected by your own family, so most gay Arab boys go to Paris and leave their suburbian family environment to find some freedom...
Do you think that white gay men have prejudices against Arabian gays? Or are they “objects of desire”?
The average white gay man or woman in France has prejudices against Arabian people in general (remember Le Pen was the third man in the French last Presidential elections...). So most average straight French men and women have double prejudices against Arab gay boys... Because the average French man is also homophobic... And Arab gay boys are viwed as “objects of desire” for the average French gay boy, who has post-colonialist attitudes towards them...
Do you know if there are lesbians from the maghreb area?
As many in any area in the world I guess ! I don’t know, I am a film-maker, not a specialist about Maghreb and homosexuality...
Do you know if openly gay muslim men in France are religious?
No, I don’t...
In the film, one of the protagonists says that Arabic society accepts the “active guy”, but hates the one who gets fucked. Calls him “attai”. Do you think that gay Arabs in Paris have the same attitude? No, not at all. All gay arab boys are as “open” as the average gay French boy. But actually, a lot of them say they are active, that’s what I could notice in by talking to them on the internet meeting web sites... So maybe there are traces on this division between passive & active men on their behaviour...
Did the oasis Siwa mentioned in the film really exist? And how did you find out about it?
Yes it does... A friend of mine, Alain Burosse, who used to be the director of Canal + short programs, had talked of this to me, and made a documentary movie about it : “SIWA”, shown on Arte... Go to http://www.gayegypt.com/gayguidtosiw.html for more information about Siwa and Alain Burosse’s movie. But I never went to Siwa...
On your webpage I saw that your other film “Mes Parents” is something like a Gore-Movie. Are you a fan of that genre?
Yes I am. I should say : “I used to be”. But I still like watching good horror movies –which can also tell messages about life in general- but they’re more and more are...
What are your future plans?
To make new movies (I shot a new movie last summer, called “the Sex of Madam H”, “Madame H” being a real famous “drag-queen” in Paris I am kidnapping – I am playing my own role -to discover her actual sex and film her... see her web-site www.madameh.com ), to dvd publish works of film-makers I like and we can not find in France. That’s the reason why I created my own company : “LES FILMS DE L’ANGE”...
Paris, march 2004.
