Hafsia Herzi had already proven his qualities as a filmmaker with You deserve a love. Good mother, his second feature film presented this year at the Cannes Film Festival in the Un certain regard section, proves that it was not a fluke. This portrait of a mother from Marseille is magnificent.
“I have known a lot of women like Nora, my heroine, explains to 20 minutes Hafsia Harzi. She finds it natural to give everything to her children without realizing that they sometimes abuse her kindness. A son in prison for robbery, an unemployed daughter, a daughter-in-law who does what she can and two grandchildren to keep busy the lady who multiplies the jobs to keep hers afloat.
A two-way street
The title of the film refers both to the qualities of this courageous fifty-something and to the nickname of the Notre-Dame de la Garde basilica which overlooks Marseille. “I know the northern neighborhoods in which it operates very well because I myself have come from it,” explains Hafsia Herzi. All the characters in the film are loosely based on people I have known. “
We have a weakness for the big girl, mother of an adorable kid, who wants to work for a sadomasochistic site by believing that it is not a question of prostitution since she will only hit her clients. Hafsia Herzi then lets appear a welcome touch of humor in the conversations between high-verbal women who seek to escape poverty by all means.
Empathy above all
Empathy is the watchword of the film which treats its characters as lost as they are without passing judgment on them. “I surrounded myself with actresses and non-professional actors because I took the example of Abdellatif Kechiche, my father of cinema who taught me everything” explains the director. She made her performers work before the shoot, taking care not to make them lose their naturalness. The solidarity that Nora meets with her fellow workers brings tears to her eyes.
His greatest achievement is to have unearthed Halima Benhamed, assistant of his summer, who devours the screen in the title role. “As soon as I saw her, I knew it was her,” recalls Hafsia Herzi. She has a remarkable game intelligence to convey the subtlety of a woman who loves her people above all else. The dignity of this everyday heroine who announces that she wants to fight to the point of collapsing with fatigue enforces this good mother kneaded with tenderness.