Mohamed Hamidi, the director of ONE MAN AND HIS COW (nominated for European Comedy), talks about humour and explains how he found the actors.
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Can you briefly describe what your film is about? A MAN AND HIS COW describes the story of a small Algerian farmer who leaves his village with his cow, guiding her to the annual Agricultural Show in Paris. He crosses the Mediterranean and then makes the journey on foot, discovering France and himself. |
What was the initial idea and how did you develop it?
In my opinion the film is first of all about meeting and reconciliation. With his naivety, joy and philosophy, a North African goes to an encounter of French people who have totally different and more existential issues. At their base, the characters find their human values.
How would you define the humour of your film? How did you find the right tone?
I think that humour often results from discrepancy, from a surprise. In this case the humour stems a lot from the difference between Fatah, the film’s main character, and the people he meets: a penniless aristocrat who lives in his castle, angry farmers, a journalist. We worked a lot on the dialogues but also on the look because a comedy must be able to make you laugh even without sound. I had the chance to work with actors who really have a “vis comica”, a comical strength.
How did you find your cast?
For the main role, I worked with Fatah Bouyahmed who is a wonderful actor with whom I had the chance to work on my first film, NÉ QUELQUE PART. It is rare that you have an actor like him, who truly carries comedy and drama within him and who is able to switch from one to the other style within a few seconds. But it is thanks to Jamel Debbouze, who is also co-producer of the film and whose shows I have been directing for almost 10 years, that we could finalise the film. He is very popular in France and when he accepted to play the role of Hassan, Fatah’s brother-in-law, it really helped us to finance the film. Meeting Lambert Wilson for the shooting of the film was also great moment of exchange and cinema for me.
Comedy is not always easy to translate to other languages and cultures, even within Europe. Why does it work with your film?
Comedy is a universal language; this is why it attracts me. My father was an Algerian immigrant who laughed watching Chaplin, Louis de Funès or Italian comedies. I think that A MAN AND HIS COW tells a universal story: the one of a man who has a simple dream, which is leading his cow to France, to Paris, for an animal competition and who is ready to do anything to achieve it. It was great fun to see the German, Spanish, Belgian or English audiences laughing in the theatres. As I also come from different cultures, I try to make a universal cinema and I am happy to observe that, in the case of A MAN AND HIS COW, the message did travel.
