French filmmaker Chloé Mazlo on Skies of Lebanon: ‘Cinema is an amazing confluence of different forms of art’
French filmmaker Chloé Mazlo on Skies of Lebanon: ‘Cinema is an amazing confluence of different forms of art’
A poetic blend of the personal and the political scene, Skies of Lebanon combines live action with animation to create a vivid picture of Lebanon, inspired by the family history of the director Chloé Mazlo. By using stories told to her by her grandmother about life during the Lebanese civil war, Mazlo crafts a touching and heart-breaking story of love during the conflict.
In an exclusive interview to Firstpost, Chloé Mazlo says that she loves India though it is her first visit. “I wish to come back again.” Skies of Labanon is her first feature film. When it comes to portraying a story that is so close to her heart and has been waiting to be told, it is a story she heard from her grandmother. It is a story of love set in Lebanon during the 1950s, amidst a civil war. Above all, she was driven to make the film by the urge to tell this story. “My grandmother was born in Switzerland, but she didn’t like the life there. Moving to Lebanon, she fell in love with the place and its culture. She felt that she was born for the second time. She simply loved the people, the food and the close knit family culture of Lebanon. And for me it’s a letter of love for the country.”
The film was selected for the Semaine de la Critique at the 2020 Cannes Film Festival. Talking about her film, Chloé Mazlo’s says, “Skies of Lebanon (Sous le ciel d’Alice) is a story of love between Switzerland and Lebanese people. It’s is the story of young Alice who leaves Switzerland for Lebanon, a sunny and exuberant country, where she falls in love with Joseph, an astrophysicist who dreams of sending the first Lebanese into space.”
Chloé Mazlo was born in Paris, but she grew up hearing stories on Lebanon. “Hearing to the stories for me Lebanon became like a paradise on earth.” Mazlo was so drawn to the story of Skies of Lebanon that she did not regret the flaws that crept in while making the film. “With Skies of Lebanon, I wanted to tell the stories of my family, using the tone they had when they talked about the war. I couldn’t find this tone in the other films that I saw about the particular subject. I grew up fascinated by this country and despite the civil war, my family still feels it’s a beautiful country.”
When asked if she would make the film the same way again if given the opportunity, the director replied without hesitation “If I had to remake the film, I would do the same! I don’t regret anything about the shoot, I know the film has some blunders but I’m not aiming for perfection. Her words smacked of sheer sincerity born out of conviction.
A student of visual arts and graphic design, Mazlo finds cinema to be an amazing confluence of different forms of art and came to it through animation and a desire to tell stories. To celebrate the rich contribution of women film directors to the cinematic oeuvre of France, “Skies of Lebanon” was showcased during a two-week long French Film Festival organized by the Embassy of France in India and the French Institute in India (IFI) at New Delhi’s India Habitat Centre (IHC) on Monday, January 23, 2023.
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