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2009 Festival Feature Films (March 27-29)

French director Serge Le Péron and actress Josiane Balasko present J’ai vu tuer Ben Barka

director Serge Le Péron with Saïd Smihi screenplay Serge Le Péron, Frédérique Moreau, Saïd Smihi starring Charles Berling, Simon Abkarian, Josiane Balasko running time 1 h 41 min general audience

Synopsis

January 1966. In a Paris apartment the police find the corpse of Georges Figon, the man who blew the whistle on the Ben Barka scandal that shook up the Gaullist government.

A year earlier … Figon, tired of dubious deals and petty scams, is on the hunt for a lucrative project. Connected to the underworld since his time in jail, he is put in charge of a substantial mission: to produce a documentary about decolonization, written by Marguerite Duras and directed by Georges Franju, assisted by the famous Moroccan militant leader, Mehdi Ben Barka, hired as the film’s historical adviser.

Unknown to most of those involved in the film’s production, the project is a trap.

director/screenwriter
Serge Le Péron

actress
Josiane Balasko

For selected filmography see Cliente.

actor
Charles Berling

selected films since 1996

actor
Simon Abkarian

selected films since 1989

Interview with director Serge Le Péron

Why make this movie now?
Principally for political reasons. I think it is important to remember that period, the 1960s, in order to better understand our own time, the 21st century. We are in a time now when the leaders of the Third World are taking a very strong anti-Western position. I think it’s important, therefore, to talk about a period when Third World leaders like Ben Barka, Lumumba, Allende, had a universal view of world development. One of the reasons for the current gap between North and South, between the Third World and the West, comes from the fact that we assassinated people like Lumumba, Ben Barka and Allende. The Ben Barka affair speaks of a time when there was this alliance, this deep friendship between Western intellectuals — those who wanted to change the Western world — and the intellectuals and leaders of the Third World.

During these past 40 years, one cannot say that much of the truth was known about the fate of Ben Barka. What is sure is that many things said at the time were untrue. But we know more now. Moroccan spies have talked. We know who was in Rabat at the time, in Paris, which secret service was in charge of the plot. We know, for instance, that the CIA was involved. In 1965, Ben Barka’s disappearance was considered as a Franco-Moroccan affair, but after all these years, we understand that it was more of a universal affair, that Mehdi Ben Barka was not killed only because he was against the ‘politique’ of Morocco at that time. Ben Barka was a leader of a Third World organization called the Tricontinental.

Were there problems in funding the film?
It was a little complicated at first in France to get the financing. Then, in fact, things became easier when Morocco came on board for the co-production of the film, as if the French institutions were reassured to see that the Moroccan regime of today was ready to examine at least part of the truth about the abduction of Mehdi Ben Barka. The thing is that in France we have not talked much about this period of colonization and especially decolonization, in films, television or novels. ... There were very few films made about the Algerian War, about the war in Indochina, about all these movements of decolonization which happened in the 1950s and 1960s. That is why today there is an explosion, a return of the repressed. The things we have hidden throughout the years now have to come out. Just think of the recent success of Days of Glory, which tells the story of the Senegalese infantrymen, that is to say, the men who came from Algeria, Morocco and Western Africa to liberate France from the Nazis. We never spoke about them either before.

In France, my film was rather well received by critics on both right and left sides. I think that people liked the form I chose as well — the fact that it was a film which talked about political matters while using an accessible cinematic form: a “film noir,” a thriller. The actual facts of the Ben Barka affair were in themselves thrilling, so it wasn’t hard to reproduce them as a “film noir.” There is also the fact that the release happened in France at a period when we wanted to talk about decolonization. The film came out during the riots in France. I went to a lot of cinemas to present it to the audience and to talk about it. In these suburbs, which were burning, you could see the discussion was about what has happened between France and the countries from where all these kids in the suburbs and their parents come from. There was this desire to know more, because the history books at school tell them very little on the matter.