Je ne suis pas mort
Mehdi Ben Attia
Yacine, a brilliant political sciences student from a poor background, gets unexpected support from Richard, his professor of political philosophy. He helps him to get an internship at the Elysée. But one night Yacine wakes up in a panic. In a trance he goes to his professor's home where he learns of his death. Strangely calm he starts comforting the family.
With : Mehdi Dehbi, Maria de Medeiros, Emmanuel Salinger
Screenplay : Mehdi Ben Attia
Image : Grégoire de Calignon
Sound : Alan Savary
Editing : Emmanuelle Castro
Music : Karol Beffa
Screenplay : Mehdi Ben Attia
Image : Grégoire de Calignon
Sound : Alan Savary
Editing : Emmanuelle Castro
Music : Karol Beffa
Production : Mercredi Films, Elodie Lachaud // 14, rue Edouard Robert, 75012 Paris // Tel. : +33 (0)1 43 41 11 90 // Email : contact@mercredifilms.com
Scriptwriter and director Mehdi Ben Attia was born in 1968 in Tunis. After studying economics and political sciences, with Zina Modiano he co-wrote the Franco-Tunisian short En face. Mehdi Ben Attia worked on the writing of Loin (André Téchiné, 2001), Impardonnables (André Téchiné, 2011) and a number of television series. Je ne suis pas mort is his second feature.
"The main challenge of writing and directing Je ne suis pas mort was the double interpretation: the story had to work on two levels, as an adventure and a metaphor, as a fantastic and a political film, as a tale of metamorphosis and madness, as the story of a young man who hates his own identity and one of a mature man projected into a new youth, etc. To tell this complex story, I chose a simple directing style: empathy with the main character and respect for his point of view. What interested me here is not so much the "fantasy" side, not even the meditation on "identity", it is the feeling for the character, his innerness. The work with Mehdi Dehbi, and the work on the directing and the breakdown, consisted in approaching this innerness which is invisible by nature" Mehdi Ben Attia.
"The main challenge of writing and directing Je ne suis pas mort was the double interpretation: the story had to work on two levels, as an adventure and a metaphor, as a fantastic and a political film, as a tale of metamorphosis and madness, as the story of a young man who hates his own identity and one of a mature man projected into a new youth, etc. To tell this complex story, I chose a simple directing style: empathy with the main character and respect for his point of view. What interested me here is not so much the "fantasy" side, not even the meditation on "identity", it is the feeling for the character, his innerness. The work with Mehdi Dehbi, and the work on the directing and the breakdown, consisted in approaching this innerness which is invisible by nature" Mehdi Ben Attia.