06/12/2024 - The debuting writer-director shares how she brought to life the buried emotions of loss incurred during the Algerian Civil War through different cinematic elements

Dania Reymond-Boughenou makes her feature debut with Silent Storms [+see also:
film review
interview: Dania Reymond-Boughenou
film profile], which has had its world premiere at the Marrakech International Film Festival. The writer-director reflects on the lingering grief and trauma from Algeria's Civil War period via a speculative story with a splash of fantasy that serves as a conduit to unlocking emotions linked to collective memory and loss.

Cineuropa: Your film is set during the Algerian Civil War, also known as the Black Decade. What did you want to highlight about this context and period for viewers – both those who are familiar with it and those who aren’t?
Dania Reymond-Boughenou: I really wanted to talk about the intimate consequences of this Black Decade. I think we need rituals for death. It’s a fact that the violence ended [and forwent] the work of remembrance and recognising all of the people, including the dead people, and in a way, [without] achieving justice for them. I wanted to show this man who has this work to do alone, because in wider society, it's difficult to do.

This man, Nacer, is the one who has lost someone dear to him. But his doctor brother Yacine is also haunted, in a way, by his dead patients.
Loss affects everybody. Even if we don't lose someone, we [still] lose something. We were all affected; all of the Algerian people. I think that, also, the violence, sadness and loss of memory are still circulating among the people. If we don't express the sadness or the necessity to say goodbye to the dead, this sadness and this need to grieve take hold. I think it circulates among all people, even the young generation [who never directly experienced the trauma].

What’s unique about this story is that those who return from the dead have so much agency. They’re not just present at night or confined to the memory of the living.
It happened like this for me during the writing work, at the beginning of the script. I was trying to imagine this character of Fajar, Nacer’s girlfriend, but it was really hard. I couldn't really say why, but it was difficult for me to imagine her and to make her feel alive. I remember one night, I understood that, actually, the character was [meant to be] dead. I was trying to write her as a “normal” person, and it was not [working], because she was a dead person.

The fantastical element of your film also takes place in the form of this yellow powder or substance that blankets the ground, which eventually grows in size and magnitude.
Even when I knew I wanted to talk about the Black Decade, the first thing I saw [in my mind] was this yellow powder. I didn't really know what it meant, but I started to investigate with my character, and it was through the writing that I understood this powder. I think I have the subconscious desire to give a colour and a texture to invisible things. In fact, we have this very special character that we made come to life. We really thought of the storm as a character. So, I tried to make it arrive very gently.

Could you talk about the music by Dan Levy? It’s quite haunting and sometimes even a little menacing.
I was familiar with his pop band, The Dø, and I really loved the music he made for I Lost My Body [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Jérémy Clapin
film profile]. When I watched that film, I thought his music was very strong, and I just asked him [to work on my film], and he said yes. At the very beginning of the editing, he saw some rushes, and he sent me a soundtrack that he made very quickly just by watching them. We started like that.

As this is your debut feature, was there anything you encountered or experienced that you want to make sure you take into account or remember for your next film?
Honestly, I never imagined that we would run into so many difficulties. The fact that I wanted to make the movie in Algeria made it very hard, and it was also during the COVID-19 period or just after. I also think I wrote the script in a very particular way. The narrative [element] is not very [direct], and I let a lot of things remain atmospheric. I think this maybe made the collaboration or finding partners more difficult. Also, we were working between three countries: France, Algeria and Morocco. A lot of actors came from Algeria to Morocco, while a lot of people were already in Morocco. So, it was a very big challenge to make a common world [for everyone].