Antoine Héberlé, AFC, discusses the shooting of "Aïcha", by Mehdi M. Barsaoui

Aya is stuck in a dull life with no prospects in Tozeur, southern Tunisia. The sole survivor of an accident, she decides to disappear and reinvent her life in Tunis. But her new identity is compromised when she becomes the main witness to police misconduct.

Watching the film, one is struck by this sort of modern coming-of-age tale, at once realistic and yet highly imaginative. How did you approach the project?

Antoine Héberlé: Mehdi, our director, is above all a pragmatist. Like his previous film, the script was inspired by current events in his country. He then embroiders and constructs his story from a number of true stories, which are then brought together to form a fiction. His cinematic approach on the set is very intuitive, very much rooted in the moment - whether that of the shoot or that of the story. He’s not a director who discusses writing with the camera at a very early stage. It’s mainly the location scouting and the discovery of the sets that trigger this process. Certain lines are established from the outset, however, such as the hand-held camera, which is subservient to the main character, and which he likes very much. For Mehdi, it’s very complicated to envisage scenes on location. He quickly becomes afraid of a composition that’s too prepared, of a gaze that’s too detached, perhaps even dull. He’s looking for that feverishness, and I think it goes well with the subjects he tackles. Not letting go of the main character is really his thing.


Still, there’s a kind of journey, from light to darkness, from desert to city... And a way of filming that changes when you get to the city.

AH: It’s true that there’s a constant closeness with Aya in the first part of the film. We never let go of her, especially in the tense scenes at the hotel, whether with the other employees or with the manager, with whom she has a "sentimental" relationship. Then, when the story moves to Tunis, we tried to take a more relaxed approach, distancing ourselves a little and giving her a little more room to breathe, so as to fit her into the new setting of Tunis, which we discover alongside her. Whether in the hotel or on the lake. The camera watches her progress, taking a breather before resuming the race. At this point in the plot, she discovers a city she knows nothing about - or only a little from what she remembers - and which she imagines to be full of promise. It’s here that she intends to build a new life. But things take a turn for the worse in the nightclub sequence, as the police drama gets underway. At this point, we’re back to a close-up camera shot of Fatma. It’s true that, at this point in the story, I would have liked to have remained at a distance for a while longer, like one of the characters caught up in this incident. But Mehdi wanted to get back to Aya’s energy very quickly, and for us to stick to the situations and events as they unfolded.

What about color?

AH: In terms of color, we had agreed to start the film with warm tones tending slightly towards red. There’s the presence of the desert, of course, and this rather welcoming luxury hotel, with its very warm tones.

For example, there’s a break-up scene in one of the hotel suites. The curtains are drawn, and Aya tries to open them at the same time as tempers flare with the manager whose mistress she is. Lights were placed outside to ensure a fairly high level on the thick curtains and maintain a level of half-light. Opening the curtains, she clearly challenges him to acknowledge their affair, "out in the open", and the light bursts in to scorch their minds. She urges him to keep his promises of a new life together. It’s a simple enough device, but one that works well in this key scene. And it’s this suite with its safe that, against all odds, will later enable her to start her new life. It’s a sequence that’s shot on two axes, simply, with a little distance to see the bodies move, and measure their difference in size. He’s very tall compared to her, and that sums up the relationship of domination very well. There’s very little light in the room itself, mostly black fabric to increase contrast, and a few Helios tubes hanging above the curtains to give the faces a little sculptural effect.

This is a film in which I tried to place as little light as possible on the face, to leave the set space free for the actors. Let the main light source do its thing, with a fairly simple set-up that would enhance the natural light without necessarily balancing the contrasts or supporting the faces.


Arriving in the city also means plunging into the night...

AH: The city at night tilts the film towards cyans, golds and sodium, which are difficult to counter on a low-budget film. Cooler colors that veer towards green to create a really dirty atmosphere as the situation closes in upon itself. Particularly in the police station. The big night-time interrogation scene is undoubtedly the pinnacle of this use of green! But these choices were made step by step, according to the location, keeping in mind the rough aspect of the place. In relation to this part, among the films Mehdi mentioned in preparation, there’s the 2022 film Les Nuits de Masshad, by Iranian-Danish director Ali Abbasi (Best Actress Award at Cannes, 2023, image Nadim Carlsen, DFF). An Iranian journalist investigates a killer of prostitutes, with an image that can only be described as raw. Also with a hand-held camera. The main character was also a real inspiration. A woman in a man’s society, with only herself to rely on. Until Aya finds unexpected help.

What was your choice of equipment?

AH: We had to shoot with Panavision Marseille to guarantee our expenses in the Sud region, which was backing the film. I came as a neighbor to visit Fabrice Gomont, and chose from their wide range of Panavision lenses. I was thinking of going anamorphic, but I finally decided on spherical. Mehdi wasn’t convinced by my tests and was concerned about the weight and bulk of the lenses for a hand-held film. I appreciated his concerns. So the film was made with an Alexa Mini Open Gate, using a Panaspeed T 1.4 series, a wide-aperture lens whose rendering we’d really liked during the tests. Both very round and precise. To complement these lenses, originally intended for Full Frame, I also took with me the 35 and 50 mm Ultra Speed (T1) lenses I was very familiar with, which are much more compact and lightweight as they only cover Super35. This gave me a much lighter shoulder configuration on these two focal lengths, which I used a lot.

What was the main technical challenge?

AH: Certainly the car stunt sequence. I’d had some experience in this area in the past, shooting crime series like “Engrenages”. But Mehdi had never shot a scene like that! The thing is, we really wanted something simple, surprising but not necessarily spectacular. Even though the very experienced and professional Italian special effects team were pushing us in that direction. As with any stunt, we had to multiply the number of cameras, installing GoPro’s inside the vehicle, and two other exterior cameras (an Alexa and a Sony FX7S) in addition to our Alexa Mini. In fact, the main difficulty was to stage the vehicle’s fall in two phases. The Minivan hangs for a while halfway down the slope, before tipping over and exploding at the bottom of the ravine. Mehdi cleverly found two different slopes on the same mountainside. This made it much easier for us to connect the two parts of the plunge and place our vehicle in position independently of the rest of the stunt. A few digital effects were necessary, notably to erase some dummies that had been ejected during the initial run-off, and to reconstruct a coherent background in a wide shot where the vehicle is suspended in equilibrium before its second fall.

How many days did you have to shoot the film?

AH: 34 days, which was pretty comfortable. Shooting began in the south over ten days, for all the hotel sequences and the infamous stunt. Then we moved on to Tunis for the rest. For this first part, we shot in the hotel where we were staying, which saved us a lot of time. What’s more, the scene of the accident was an hour’s drive away, so we were able to go back and forth during the day to shoot the minivan crash.

Finally, let’s talk about the reunion sequence with the parents. A very poignant and intimate moment, even though it was filmed in the street...

AH: There was a lot of discussion about what was plausible for this key scene. The parents come from the countryside, and the city is not their environment at all, so we had to find a coherent context for this reunion with their daughter. Entering the bakery seemed out of place, given the presence of the owner alongside Aya. So we decided to leave them in the courtyard across the street, opposite the bakery... and have our protagonist meet them after noticing them casually in the distance, while she was on the job. In fact, the parents’ characters positioned themselves at the right distance to be seen, without entering a world not their own. 
From then on, as is systematically the case in the film, Mehdi doesn’t bother to move around or use bridging shots. We enter the scene directly, in this case with the dialogue between the three family members. No frills at the beginning or end of the sequence, just the action, with the dialogue and this very poignant exchange of words. At the end, Aya heads back to the bakery, and we film from inside the shop and through the window, the final phase of the family’s reconciliation. Aya emerges and her guilt-ridden father takes her in his arms. It’s a modest point of view that keeps us at a distance. The final pan shot makes it clear that the baker’s wife witnessed the scene. This surrogate mother symbolically takes her place when the original family finally explodes.

What did you take away from this film?

AH: Shooting a director’s first and second film is an important step in building a partnership. On Un fils, I often took on the role of “big brother”, as did Samy Bouajila, who shared his long experience of film sets with Mehdi.
This was different. We exchanged ideas as equals. We didn’t have to build up trust, and we were less afraid of confronting each other when it came to making important choices. The relationship was solid, you could shake it. It has staying power, and that’s great! 
Otherwise, I think I’ve gained even more freedom with regard to technique and its dogmas... like allowing myself to shoot with just about any camera when I have to and when there’s no other way. When the story is strong and the actors are good, the rest follows.

(Interview by François Reumont, and translated from French by A. Baron Raiffe, for the AFC)