French producer Mélita Toscan du Plantier is one of the driving forces behind the starry lineup of the Marrakech International Film Festival (FIFM).
Described by jury president Jessica Chastain on stage on opening night as “my good friend Melita”, Toscan du Plantier first became involved with the festival with her husband, the late producer Daniel. It was Daniel who wrote to the King of Morocco nearly 25 years ago with an ambition to create an international film festival in Morocco.
This year marks 20 years since Daniel Toscan du Plantier died suddenly during the Berlin Film Festival in 2003.
Mélita Toscan du Plantier sat down with Screen during this year’s festival to talk about her husband’s legacy, her own projects as a producer, including the English-language comedy drama Funny Birds, starring Catherine Deneuve and why this year’s festival simply needed to go ahead.
It’s 20 years since your husband died. What does the anniversary mean to you?
My husband was more than my husband, he was my whole life. I had a very difficult childhood and life, and he became.my best friend, my family, and my mentor. To lose him was the worst thing in my life. When His Majesty King Mohammed VI and the Prince asked me to continue the festival, I was shocked, because I was a 34 year-old French woman. In retrospect I think that was very modern.
How does the relationship work between the festival and talent?
A big director told me, “Don’t pay [talent to attend the festival], because it means that a festival is not a real festival — we filmmakers we go to a festival when we feel it’s a good festival and it means something.”
When we started the first year, it was very difficult, we had to go through adversity because it was just after the September 11 events in the US. And everybody cancelled. I worked days and nights for two weeks to convince others to come and called my friends all over the world to save the festival.
What is your secret to attracting talent to attend, returning year after year to celebrate cinema?
I think I understand artists and I think I know how to protect them. While they are here, I’m obsessed by them being not bothered, and to be well surrounded. Throughout the year, I travel a lot to visit them. Friendship, you have to nourish it — it’s not just one phone call a year. I’m also very maternal, with my friends, with my kids of course, and my friends are my family.
This year has seen catastrophes happen too, both in Morocco with the earthquake and in the region with the Israel-Hamas war. How do you frame a festival in the face of such tragedy?
I was a bit worried at the beginning, hoping we will only talk about cinema. We decided to keep the festival, we didn’t want to abandon all these young directors who are counting on us to help them, with the Atlas Workshops for example, and the Moroccan films. Culture has always been a kind of weapon against obscurity, against hate, against adversity. It’s a message and movies are a way of saying things very strongly, even more than art and painting.
And it’s important to keep [the festival], it’s important first of all for Morocco, for the people of Marrakech who have suffered a lot with the earthquake. And they have been waiting for the festival, because the festival is free. It is maybe the only big festival that is completely free — and has always been free.
Tell me about your new projects as a producer. What is next for you?
The movie Funny Birds with Catherine Deneuve, Martin Scorsese is the executive producer on that and I’m co-producer, it’s coming out in February [2024]. Also we have a few projects with my partner Julien Madon and Martin Scorsese to discover new directors, which is Scorsese’s passion.I love [Scorsese’s] generosity about that.
We have a young Moroccan director, Asmae El Moudir, who is in Competition here. We also have two Iranian directors — one is Panah Panahi, Jafar Panahi’s son — we are very excited about that. Also the next film by Phillip Noyce I am casting now with my partners which is a thriller and will shoot starting September 2024. And an African film which isn’t confirmed yet.
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