Banned and censored for thirty years, Of some meaningless events, the first film by Moroccan Mostafa Derkaoui, made in 1974, had fallen into oblivion. Just like its director, author of ten other films. In 2019, the Berlin Festival restored and screened this film, which has since been screened around the world. It is considered a jewel of world cinema.
In France, the film is thus presented this Monday, February 6 as part of the festival Regards satelliteswhich takes place at the Cinéma l’Écran in Saint-Denis, near Paris, in partnership with the Panorama des Cinémas du Maghreb et du Moyen-Orient.
An avant-garde, committed and free feature film that questions the role of cinema and artists in the face of political oppression. He only met his audience once. It was in Paris in 1975. “ This is the first Arab film screened at this festivalspecifies Mostafa Derkaoui at the microphone of RFI. I had the honor of seeing him pass between two monuments of cinema: The Thirst for Eviledited by Orson Wells and Flight over cuckoo’s nest, by Milos Forman. And, of course, that’s when I thought to myself: “What mess did I get myself into?” »
A film judged inappropriate » at the time
The symbolism of the film did not prevent it from being banned and then invisible for a long time. He was judged ” inappropriate at the time by the power in place. The constantly revised and tweaked script was considered by critics to be ” radical because it goes against conventional narrative patterns and constantly questions the nature of cinematographic language.
In Of some meaningless events, it’s the story of a film crew that shoots a movie and stumbles upon a crime. Team that decides to follow the criminal, an employee who kills his boss. ” The boy we see at the beginning, getting off a bus, stealing a moped and going to where filmmakers are interviewing people about cinema, it’s because of them that he goes being apprehended by the police and he ultimately calls them collaborators: you are the very system you want to fight against “, Decrypts Mostafa Derkaoui.
Mostafa Derkaoui found his references in theatre, music and philosophy, far from known codes and beaten paths.
Sophie Delvallé, director of a documentary on Mustapha Derkaoui: “I have always admired his cinema.”