Competition “When Pigs Have Wings”
 
Interview with Sylvain Estibal (director) and Myriam Tekaïa

 
Focusing on the marginal existence to understand and accept others
 
A pig is thrown into a world where conflict continues in When Pigs Have Wings. Jafaar, a Palestinian fisherman in Gaza, hauls in a pig one day. Struggling to make a living, Jafaar wants to make some money with the impure animal and makes contact with Yelena, a Russian Israeli who rears pigs in the settlement. The following is an interview with Director Sylvain Estibal, whose unique idea and humor turned the pig into a bridge, and Myriam Tekaïa, who played Yelena.
 
— This is your first feature length film, but you have worked in a variety of fields before then.
 
Director Sylvain Estibal (Estibal): I started as a journalist whilst I was a student in Paris. I was working for a magazine about Africa so I went to places like the Sahara to write articles. During the Bosnian conflict, I reported from the field as a cameraman. Then I joined AFP news agency where I started to write books, published a novel, made short films, and became a film director.
 
— Your novel was adapted to a film in 2009 as Le dernier vol by Director Karim Dridi, starring Guillaume Canet. What is the novel about?
 
Estibal: It is a mixture of a real story and fiction, based on an airplane crash in the Sahara in 1933. The airplane was finally found in 1962, together with a record kept by the pilot for eight days while waiting for rescue. I wrote the novel based on the record but that is hardly shown in the film.
 
— Did you always want to make films? Or did something spark you off during your career?
 
Estibal: I was always interested in images such as photographs and films, but I didn’t think I would make a film myself. Making a short film gave me confidence, and also when I watched Le dernier vol, which we just talked about, I thought I could make a better job, so I became a director (laugh).

 
— When I was watching the film, I remembered reading an article in the past about pigs being reared in Israel to avoid bomb attacks. I was impressed you made a film like this by using a pig, but where did you get the inspiration for it?
 
Estibal: I have heard the story, too. I live in Uruguay where a lot of sheep are shipped in for the Islamic festival of sacrifice, id ul-adha. Seeing the scene, I imagined what if they were pigs instead of sheep, which tied in with the story that pigs are reared for real in Israel. I thought it would be interesting if a pig comes from the sea and becomes a bridge between Israel and Palestine.
 
— Miss Tekaïa, I hear you are from Tunisia. Did you always want to become an actress?
 
Myriam Tekaïa (Tekaïa): I wanted to go into music, but when I went on a 10-day theatrical performance course to improve my voice and pronunciation, I was taken in by theater so much that I changed direction. Being an actress is more like my life’s mission rather than a job. I love music, and I think it’s the supreme form of art, but I was not good at standing in front of an audience, that has changed since I started working in theatre. I went to a film school for four years, and went for various auditions during that time. A Taiwanese film with a French actor for a major character would be this piece and this film.
 
— Director Estibal, did you do a lot of research for the realistic part of this film?
 
Estibal: When I was working for AFP, I spent one year making a special feature on the Gaza Strip. We gave a camera each to a Palestinian family and a Jewish family in the settlement, that live only ten meters apart. We asked each family to take photographs of their daily life and swapped them after one year.
We learned a lot about their life. But this film intends to expand on real life into the world of imagination, so I don’t want you to feel you have seen the reality in Gaza. I want you to see the comical world, as well as the reality.
 
— You are a journalist and I didn’t expect humor like a pig pinup or soldiers drinking pig’s sperm thinking it works wonders for rheumatism from you.
 
Estibal: It’s not from AFP (laugh). It’s a product of my imagination, but it also a means to express anger in a comical way than as it is. It is an attempt to use slightly vulgar humor to change the unbearable reality, which is also at the source of Chaplin’s inspiration. Ettore Scola’s sense of humor also gave me an idea.
 
— Miss Tekaïa, what was your first impression of the film and your character?
 
Tekaïa: I am his partner and I knew he was writing a scenario. He rang me one day and said he had a great idea and wanted me to do this role. I was involved in another film, but I heard it is a character that rears pigs and I thought I could play the role.

 
Estibal: Myriam’s character, Yelena, and Jafaar, the fisherman, are both on the margins of society, where the connection forms. Myriam resembles the character in the sense that she is away from her community. The role may have been a surprise to her, but it is an extremely logical choice to me. Ultimately, it is not whether she is a Jew or not, but the role suits her because the characters are similar.
 
—- An Israeli Sasson Gabai plays the fisherman and Tekaïa from Tunisia plays Yelena, was it your choice from the beginning?
 
Estibal: When choosing the lead actor, Sasson Gabai of The Band’s Visit came to my mind. I only learned afterwards that he was an Israeli, and I thought it was even better in the sense that it breaks the stereotype and gives a two-way meaning to the film. But at first, I would like you to focus on the story without such background information. Sasson is like a mirror. If you watch the film without any prior knowledge, you would think he is a Palestinian. But he is in fact an Israeli, just like a mirror. I told you about the special feature on the Palestinian and Israeli families. Their daily lives turned out to be very similar. Therefore, it is possible to break the preconceptions of each other between the Palestinians and the Israelis for a new mindset.

 
— Miss Tekaïa, what did you keep in mind when you played Yelena?
 
Tekaïa: I wouldn’t have got the role if I were not the director’s wife. So I pursued the character of Yelena until I was satisfied that only I could play the role and that I was the best person to understand her. When she emigrated from Russia, how was the settlement like, what Yelena would do, I studied everything down to the finest details until I knew I should play Yelena.
 
— You said the characters in this film exist on the margins of society. So it must be important to let the viewers imagine a powerful force behind the scene.
 
Estibal: It is exactly what I wanted to express. In a conflict like this, there is a level of people which forms the foundation. The majority of people remain silent to survive. They are victims in other words. I wanted to show the people who are wanting to lead ordinary and humble lives behind the conflict caused by political reasons.
 
Interviewed by Masaaki Oba (Film Critic)