A fable on the life force of women, by the Lebanese director Nadine Labaki

Nadine Labaki  will present the musical tragicomedy Et maintenant on va où ? (“Where do we go now?”) today in Un Certain Regard. It is an imaginary tale about the sensibilities of women, about their positions in society and about their life force.

The issue of women, their sensibility, who they are and what they are capable of accomplishing has so far been at the heart of this director’s work. From her very first film, Caramel, which came out in 2007 and was very well received by both audiences and critics alike, she has been interested in the destinies of several generations of women, in Beirut, Lebanon.

Her new film, Et maintenant on va où? (Where do we go now?), takes place this time in a small isolated mountain village. She did not want to locate it in Lebanon, because she portrays an imaginary story and not a real political film. The story is about a group of women from different religious backgrounds, Christian or Moslem, who use strategies, ruses and many ingenious tricks to prevent the men they love – husbands, fathers and sons – from going to war. The tragic aspect is blended with humour, and the whole story serves a profoundly humanistic message.

The idea came to her for very personal reasons. When she was pregnant, she told herself that if she had a son, she would not want him to go to war. She asked herself what she would be capable of doing to stop him from taking up arms.

The form of her film is original, as she has added notes of humour on a backdrop of war and grieving, and her narrative is like a fable, intersected with dancing and singing scenes. Another particular feature is that, like in her first film, she does not use professional actors because she wants to create real interactions and to generally achieve a more realistic impression. 

E.B.

 
The film will be screened at 2 p.m. and at 10 p.m. in Salle Debussy