TODAY IN MARSEILLE A GREAT DIRECTOR OF TOMORROW

This morning, 10:10 a.m. at La Caravelle, on the old port in Marseille, an appointment with a director unlike any other… Damià SERRA-CAUCHETIEZ, just thirty years old, offered us an hour and a half of his time for an interview unique during which he shared his passion for cinema with us. Passing through the city of Marseille, he was invited to La Ciotat, to the Le Best Of international short Films des Best Of film festival, and notwithstanding the postponement of this beautiful event celebrating 20 years of award-winning short films around the world, Damià decided to keep his ticket for Marseille and to transform this initially professional stay into a leisure stay. And to declare: “I turned 30 on Sunday, so I’m celebrating my birthday in France!”.

His presence was an opportunity for us to ask him about his famous short film entitled Moros en la Costa, which won the 2019 edition of the Best Of de La Ciotat, the birthplace of cinema. This young director enjoys a small notoriety in the film industry since he has already been nominated for the Goyas (equivalent to the Césars) for his first short film; also, you will have understood, we had the chance to interview a gifted and talented director, a true cinematic prodigy!

He was barely 26 years old when he directed Moros en la Costa and he explains to us how he managed to attract a Spanish film/theatre star, Vicky Peña. Indeed, on the occasion of the appointment he obtains with her to present his project to her, he manages to convince her to participate in this short film by using the “Story Board” technique, which consists, for the director, to draw the essential scenes of the film well in advance of filming, so that the actor can project himself and visualize the space in which he will have to act.

A great sense of repartee, combined with the liveliness and precision of his answers, denote the intelligence and precocity of this young man. “In the cinema”, he explains, “the most important thing is time, we don’t have a lot of time to do everything we want”.

Damià willingly lends itself to the game of the interview and answers very clearly to our many questions, while enlightening us on certain points, in particular, that relating to the title of the short film. “Moros en la costa” is a Spanish expression whose literal translation means: “the Moors on the coast”. Also, and while this rather strange title for a French neophyte, could seem to announce a short film dealing with Arab civilization, the director then reveals its true meaning to us, namely that: “Moros en la Costa, that means… that we are alone, that no one is watching us”.

In this case, this 16-minute short film recounts the meeting of two young people, Imad and Angel, from very different social backgrounds, who meet at the latter’s house for a meeting supposedly at home. away from prying eyes…
We then grasp the link between the title and the screenplay, but still, does it remain to understand how he came up with the idea for such a story? We were not at the end of our surprises when the young director answered us, in a big burst of laughter, that the basis of his film was drawn from real events!

Moros en la Costa, a small tragicomic masterpiece that concentrates cinematographic genres (we go from vaudeville to Hitchcockian suspense), is very successful whether from a point of view of content or form! Damia SERRA-CAUCHETIEZ is not devoid of a collective spirit; thus, he pays homage to the screenwriters thanks to whom “an anecdote becomes a story”. In addition, Damià brilliantly denounces racism, which is a subject that concerns him and still challenges him today: “I wanted to make a short film that not only denounces homophobia, but above all racism. (…) It is very important to have a representation of everything society is, I think that helps”. Leaving him, we have only one desire: to find Damià SERRA-CAUCHETIEZ and his energy! Fortunately, the opportunity will soon be provided to us, at the next B.O.F des B.O.F. whose programming is planned at Eden and at the Lumière cinema in LA CIOTAT, from December 6 to 11, 2022.

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Alessandra BLACHE

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