The story ofAn unexpected destiny that France 2 broadcasts at 9:10 p.m. this Wednesday will undoubtedly be familiar to you. The plot, which takes place in 1999, follows Nadia, 18, who lives in a working-class district of Angoulême (Charente). Mixed race – her father is French, her mother Rwandan – she finds herself a candidate for Miss Poitou-Charentes, then Miss France… The first name has been changed, as well as the region of origin of the young woman, but the “unexpected destiny” narrated in this fiction is indeed that of its director, Sonia Rolland, crowned Miss Burgundy before being crowned Miss France 2000. “This film is a way of presenting myself to people, of saying: this is what has driven me since all this time,” she confided to 20 minutes in September at the La Rochelle Fiction Festival. Interview.
How long have you been carrying this project within you?
I’ve been thinking about it for six years. It was complicated to get it going. I started with the documentary with Rwanda, from chaos to miracle. During the commemoration of twenty years of the genocide [en 2014], no one spoke of the resilience of these people, the reconstruction of this country. However, this is still unprecedented: few countries have experienced such a tragedy and recovered in such a short time. I spoke about it to journalist friends who told me that I was best placed to do it. They explained to me that the documentary was the freest object: you surround yourself with the best for the writing and, then, it’s your look that you put on it. TV5 Monde followed me, France Ô. I had to break the bank to pay everyone but I went for it, even though I didn’t know where it was taking me. I was acclaimed by the greatest political journalists and from there, the attention placed on me changed.
After that ?
I still carried this feeling of illegitimacy in this profession, it was always difficult for me to express the desire to make a feature film. I returned to my first love by making a short fiction film [Une vie ordinaire, en 2015], which pleased a first producer who was Dominique Farrugia. The feature project was launched, but certain things didn’t work well, confinement arrived and I told myself that the film would never be made.
Why did you choose to tell your story through fiction and not through a documentary?
Fiction allows me to make the object more universal. I wanted people to say to themselves “Hey, this could also be my life, my journey, in another field. »Miss France is a bit of a carrot, it allows you to tell a story, but we can transpose that to the destiny of an athlete, an executive, a doctor…
So you didn’t want to just talk about yourself…
When you come from a working-class background and still have one foot in it, you are informed about what is happening in society. Miss France changed a lot of things in my life, but that of those close to me remained more or less the same. I wanted to pay tribute to them. I wanted to highlight the resilience of French society, this dignity, to show the happy neighborhoods even if they experience the harshness of everyday life. I wanted to show that there is also light. I am deeply optimistic because I come from that background and I know that these people have a lot of resilience.
Did you want to celebrate the working classes in some way?
I don’t know if this will speak to everyone, but I am speaking to as many people as possible, both to the working class who no longer dream and to the most privileged class who must also take a look at this majority silent who has taken enough there, and who needs to be considered. If we don’t move forward together, things won’t go well. We need to reconsider the workers, the craftsmen, those we call “little people” and who are not “little people” but important people in our society. We have focused so much on digital technology, executives, the economy, etc. that we have forgotten what made this country live.
During your Miss France adventure, you experienced racism, but also class violence…
Coming out of adolescence, it’s true that it’s always complicated to live with, but I also had the experience of something I experienced in my childhood. When you’re mixed race, your ass is between two chairs, you’re swimming between two waters. When you have a white dad and a black mom, this problem is necessarily family, we experience it through teasing at school… I can survive racism but not social discrimination. It’s complicated, when you’re a teenager, to evolve in society with a social complex. It’s difficult to project yourself, to ambition, to dream big, when you don’t have the weapons that make you confident. My father and my mother are risk and reason. I don’t believe that a country or a society can evolve without risk or reason.
That’s to say ?
When I address the popular world, I say: “Don’t forget that we have our share of responsibility in all of this, we sometimes have to swallow our anger to move forward, to enter the matrix to make it explode.” I am the perfect example of one who entered the matrix to change the system in a certain place. Many of us do it. I have long been lucky to have an audience who grew up with me, supports me and allows me to make these films. Strings don’t sign you if you don’t have a value. I acquired this value over time thanks to the notoriety that I obtained with Miss France and which I have perpetuated.
“Unexpected Destiny” also shows that behind the Miss France veneer, there are young women who say bad words…
[Elle coupe] Yes, they smoke, they live! (laughs)
Wouldn’t the competition benefit from showing more of this spontaneity?
He does so, but isn’t it the way we read this election that alters our perception or the real issues at stake in the competition? For a long time I heard that the girls who participated were not very intelligent. No, they are educated girls who, considering their age, are really above it with the diplomas they have. We are far from “be beautiful and shut up”. On the other hand, it is true that there are codes. You have to play the game. I have always said that Miss France was a springboard, a key that allowed me to get closer to a world that seemed inaccessible to me. It was not a personal desire. As a child, I did not dream of becoming Miss France. For me, there was a gap between the world that was mine and that of the competition. But it’s a popular object and, if it’s such a hit, it’s because it makes you dream, so you have to play this game. Miss France is my biggest composition role, because a composition role asks you to interpret things while maintaining a certain honesty. I kept my honesty but I agreed to play the game. Afterwards, you have to have ambitions, otherwise there is no point in entering the competition,
The rules for the Miss France election have changed recently. What do you think ?
I think that Miss France adapts to the times, to the changes in society which are happening very, very quickly. Is everyone ready for this change? That’s the question. Because Miss France is of the order of the sacred, almost. Like any heritage, it is difficult to move it. I am in favor of things changing. But at a pace just enough for everyone to get along. Above all, it should be seen as entertainment.
The competition is now open to women with children, to trans women… This did not please everyone in the Miss France universe…
I had reservations about mothers because I see the child in all of this. For a year, we are completely dedicated to Miss France, we are on the road all the time. Is it balancing for the child? That’s the only question I ask myself. Concerning openness to transgender women, I find that very good. Society has evolved, so much the better. Will all the girls show up? I’m not sure they are motivated by this desire. We’ll see. I am for freedom.