Synopsis
This is the story of a daughter who tells the story of her mother’s life. For a long time, she saw her without really looking at her. Until she realises that her mother, on the verge of retirement, is planning a long return to Senegal. She wonders who is the woman behind her mother, who is Fatimata, who, year after year, surrounded by faithful friends, has conquered her space of freedom throughout her life.
“La vie de ma mère is a portrait of a world that is unknown to many, but familiar to others. It’s not a secret world, but it’s one that’s difficult to access if you haven’t grown up in it. I want to take you into a world where you don’t normally go.”
— Maïram Guissé
Excerpts from the director’s intention note
I was born in France 38 years ago. I grew up between two cultures: French and Senegalese. When I got angry at being told that I was different, that I was black, I used to imagine my mother, who didn’t have the codes of the country, getting off the plane. She and her friends never complain. They do what they have to do, without expecting anything from anyone, in a country that has now become theirs too. It’s a long journey that has enabled them to (re)discover themselves, to become financially independent, to build their own identity, and to be proud of it. I want to capture images and words that reveal the difficulties they have faced as black women. But above all, I want to capture their relationship with life, which has enabled them to become the emblematic women of their culture and upbringing: to have no regrets, to take things as they come, if possible with a sense of humour, even when things aren’t going well.
I know my father’s story, of immigrant men who arrived in France to work, to meet a demand for labour. I’ve seen a bit of that story in reports and documentaries. But I didn’t know the story of my mother, of these women, taken away by their husbands, invisible in the tormented history between France and its former colonies, most of the time assigned to the sole role of « wife of… » or « mother of… ». I wanted them to speak for themselves. I wanted to understand how they managed to exist, to be in a society where they were not expected to be, and to go in search of this other French history.
By discovering how my mother had built her life to become independent and broaden her scope of freedom – because yes, she did have one – I realised that everything was more complex than what I was being shown, that there is no one way to be a woman, no one way to be free, no one way to be a feminist…
— Maïram Guissé
The film crew
Director: Maïram Guissé
Authors: Maïram Guissé and Lydia Decobert
Video: Julien Gidoin
Sound: Ben Abas Sow and Izia Wallerich
Editing: Lydia Decobert
Soundtrack: Grégoire Musso
Design and animation: Sébastien Brothier and Jérôme Gonçalvès
Production: Alexandre Brachet, Margaux Missika, Camille Lacharmoise and Lucie Hua for Upian
Maïram Guissé, Ruddy Williams Kabuiku and Patrice Nguessan for Dipenda
Distribution: Claire Diao and Ibee Ndaw for Sudu Connexion
With the participation of CNC and of Fonds Images de la Diversité – Agence Nationale de la Cohésion des Territoires
With the support of Procirep – Société des producteurs, de l’Angoa,
of Brouillon d’un rêve de la Scam and of La Culture avec la Copie Privée
Director’s biography
Maïram Guissé is 38. She grew up at Canteleu, a working-class town in Normandy.
After university, she became a journalist for Paris-Normandie where she trained on the job. In 2008, she completed her studies in Réunion and after an internship at Le Parisien she joined one of its departmental agencies, before being appointed in 2012.
In 2014, she co-directed the documentary L’amour en cité, produced by Upian and broadcast on France 4.
That was the turning point: she discovered a world where she could tell stories in a different way.
In 2019, she joined the documentary filmmaking workshop at Ateliers Varan. There she made Quartiers d’été, which she then adapted into a series of podcasts for Binge Audio.
Contact
Would you like to preview the film at screenings in the provinces or in Paris? Are you a journalist interested in a link? Write to us at laviedemamere@upian.com