Inside the NYJFF: Cultures collide in WWII-set Wedding Song
A selection of the New York Jewish Film Festival, The Wedding Song tells a story that deftly bridges the personal and political. A young Muslim woman, Nour, and her Jewish friend Myriam are close friends in World War II-era Tunisia, both preparing for marriage. But the Nazi occupation strains their fragile, cross-cultural connection.
NYJFF correspondent Ronit Waisbrod talked with filmmaker Karin Albou.
Ronit Waisbrod: Where did you get the inspiration for the story and was it based on a true story?
Karin Albou: At first, my main idea was to tell the story of a friendship between two teenagers, one Jewish and one Muslim who both live into a context of war. The film is built on a double narrative. The more political events drive the two girls apart, the more their position as women reunites them.
RW: Does your family have roots in Tunisia? Any autobiographical facets in the film?
KA: My family comes from Algeria. I got the idea of the historical background because once I helped my grandmother clean the house (I was living with her in my 20’s) and I discovered letters of my grandfather who was a POW in Germany.
I studied in a French schoool what happened in Europe during WWII. I thought that nothing had happened in North Africa. With these letters, I discovered that the Vichy government removed French nationality from all Jews from Algeria. They were French since 1870 and suddenly in 1940 they were not French anymore! I was in shock when I discovered that. Then I began to do historical research because I was passionate and I discovered that there was a German occupation in Tunisia. As a young adult living in Tunisia, I decide to write this script.
RW: What attracts you to Jewish themes?
KA: I don’t know. It is something I need to explore in myself at the moment. I don’t experience it as a “Jewish theme” but more as a personal and intimate issue I need to express. Sometimes I don’t even realize that my stories deal with Jewish themes.
RW: What are you working on now?
KA: I am working on an adaptation of Marguerite Duras’s diary. She describes how she cured her husband who comes back from Buchenwald. I would love to make a movie in the States, and also in Israel.
Buy tickets: Thu Jan 22: 3:45 & 8:30
Explore posts in the same categories: festival dispatches, Filmmaker interviews, NY Jewish Film Festival, on @ the walter readeTags: Karin Albou, New York Jewish Film Festival, Ronit Waisbrod, The Wedding Song
You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site.
January 23, 2009 at 11:52 am
At Q&A with Karin, several audience members, both at NYJFF and elsewhere, did not recognize that she played the role of Myriam’ mother in the film.