2023-05-30 15:11:29
“Semret”, the first feature film by Ticino director, screenwriter and editor Caterina Mona, had its world premiere last summer at the Locarno Film Festival. It is currently on view in French-speaking cinemas.
“Semret” tells the story of an Eritrean single mother, Semret (Lula Mebrahtu), who works in the maternity ward of a hospital in Zurich. His 14-year-old daughter, Joe (Hermela Tekleab), would like to know more about her origins and her father, but Semret does not want to talk about it. “Semret lives in a fairly reclusive way with his daughter, in a symbiotic relationship that we can consider beautiful, but which has sides, obviously, quite unhealthy”, explains Caterina Mona to RTS.
Joe, very outgoing, who really wants to integrate into his life in Zurich and his Eritrean community, is out of step with his mother who wants to stay in her bubble. “For Semret, not opening up and staying away from her community is a way of living far from her traumas and not confronting her past. She is not free in her way of living”, underlines the director. Thanks to her daughter’s insistent questions and her bond with Yemane (Tedros Teclebrhan), an Eritrean refugee who also works at the hospital, Semret will dare to confront her past and try to heal.
>> To see: the trailer of the film
A film about the mother-daughter relationship
The idea for her film, Caterina Mona had it while living in Zurich in a cooperative in which she became friends with two families from Eritrea. “That’s how I learned a lot about this country, about the paths they traveled, often very difficult, to come here. For me, it has become something very important to put at the center of my film an Eritrean woman”, explains the director.
For the writing of her film, Caterina Mona researched a lot. She had access to testimonials from women and met many people. However, his feature film is indeed a fiction. “It’s not a film about the Eritrean community, but a film about a mother-daughter relationship. It was important for me that these are protagonists from Eritrea because I find it necessary to take a look at what is happening in Eritrea and what is happening for this community in Switzerland”.
>> To listen: Caterina Mona’s interview in 12:30 p.m.
Highlighting the Eritrean Community
By making this feature film, Caterina Mona also wanted to highlight a community that is very little visible through the cinema. “We see each other all the time on TV, in pubs, in the cinema. The people of Eritrea don’t have films. They never see each other. For them, it’s incredible. every time I have people from Eritrea who see themselves in the film, it’s very touching”.
Interview by Pauline Rappaz
Adaptation web: ld
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