EnglishMovies - Kung-Fu Zohra: A French action movie paying homage to the American ones of the 90s
By Mulder, 04 march 2022
Kung Fu Zohra is a French film directed by Mabrouk El Mechri and will be released in France on March 9. This is his fourth film after Virgil (2005), JCDV (2008), Sans Issue (The Cold Light of Day) (2012). This film was presented in preview at the Mediterranean Film Festival of Montpellier in 2021. The filming will take place from June 8 to July 31, 2020 in the studios of Épinay and in Île-de-France. The cast includes Sabrina Ouazani, Ramzy Bedia, Eye Haïdara and Marie Cornillon.
We invite you to discover the interview of the director in the press kit of this film:
Q: Where did you get the idea for this film ?
Mabrouk El Mechri : Between my previous film and this one, there was time. I became the father of a little girl who is now 8 years old. I find that there is a lack of films that could be addressed to her without necessarily being a Disney or a Marvel. 8 years old is the age I was when I discovered Rocky. I wanted my daughter to have her own Rocky, with her grandmother's name, since my mother's name is Zohra. After an American experience and series, I also wanted to return to a more personal project that touches on what I love, what I consider to be my identity as a filmmaker. To rediscover a more visceral desire to tell stories. To get away from this environment to reconcile myself with my craft. To explore my family history as well, to try to find stories that could get past the membrane of modesty that sometimes seemed to be "in the way" in my previous films. I also wanted to benefit from my experience and culture of the genre but in a French-speaking space. This is not an ideological film; I'm not trying to get a message across. I don't believe in themed films. I believe in stories and characters. Almost all my films are named after their characters. When I say that the film tells the story of my mother, it is rather a starting point, a proposal where cinema would allow me to tell the story of my parents that I would have preferred to tell to my children. Violence has never been a subject in itself. If there was any questioning, it was mostly about its representation. I asked myself how to neutralize the shock of the violence to allow the spectator to continue to look at it in the face, not to look away from this couple at the moment when the violence appears. The audience must first of all understand the dynamics and interactions of this couple, and where the violence between them comes from. That's what the film is all about: exploring this space-time where the initial lethargy that prevents them from getting out of the way, legitimizes the abuse a little more each day. Violence is often the shock of the blow. The realism of the sound and the noise which make cold in the back. I remembered those spaghetti westerns with Terence Hill and Bud Spencer. Where the sounds of the blows were grotesque, neutralized. I began to think of a way to neutralize the shock of violence so that I wouldn't look away. And this is where the stylistic markers of the Kung-Fu film allowed me to explore this arena. The family apartment as the place of a fight. I was obviously fed with the films of Scorsese, Tarantino, and series like The Sopranos, which use humor as a means of distancing themselves. It is often their best weapon. But I wanted to avoid the "cool" of the situation while not trying to reduce the "bad ass" scope of the character. In this, the incarnation of Sabrina and the paradox between her fragility and strength was essential. I like the idea that she is my own Stallone.
Q : How did you find the main actors for the film ?
Mabrouk El Mechri: The choice of Sabrina Ouazani, who plays the role of Zohra, was obvious. She is one of the best actresses of her generation, and she immediately lends an undeniable solitude to the character. A guarantee of non-miserabilism. She laughs a lot. I love her rough voice that perfectly matches the contradictions of the character. Ramzy Bedia and her already knew each other, and get along very well, which was great to serve the intimacy of this couple. She is also very physical. When you make a film called KUNG-FU ZOHRA, that can help. It was easy for her to get into martial arts. In short, it was obvious. Ramzy too. We've been hanging around each other for a long time. That I am convinced that there is something more ambiguous to explore with him in front of the camera. I think he's a perfect actor, with a personality that supports the greatest paradoxes. You never know if he is serious or not. Unpredictability is one of the weapons of manipulators, and Ramzy uses it wonderfully. It was important for me not to have a kind of "basic" villain.
Q: How long did Sabrina train ?
Mabrouk El Mechri: Because we had to stop pre-production because of the pandemic, she and Ramzy had to extend their training for two months. It was a blessing in disguise, we had more time to prepare.
Q: Are the videos that Zohra watches on youtube authentic, or did you make them for the film ?
Mabrouk El Mechri: We wrote and directed them. While writing the script, I did some research on Google and I was inspired by a very popular self-defense teacher: Franck Ropers. When I told the team about him, we thought it would be easiest to ask him to be in the movie. Which he accepted to do with enthusiasm, kindness and efficiency. When you want to defend yourself, you don't immediately google Kung-Fu. Instead, you look for the term: "self defense". And we find Franck. This false lead will be the premise of his meeting with Chang Sue, the guard, who will teach him Kung-Fu. At the beginning, I wanted the teacher to be much younger, but we could have expected the heroine to fall in love with him. But I didn't want her to leave one man for another. It was more about emancipation.
Q: We obviously think of Karate Kid. Did this film inspire you ?
Mabrouk El Mechri: You can't help but realize that you're walking on beaten paths. It's a film about learning a martial art with an Asian gym guard after all... Can't we put actors in suits eating breakfast without thinking of Reservoir dogs? Probably not. But that shouldn't stop you from taking a chance when a proposal seems original enough. More than an inspiration, it was a nod to a classic of the genre. I teach my children that he who loves is right. But the film is full of many other references than Karate Kid. I totally assume this choice. I come from a generation that sees cinema almost as hip-hop where we sample and regurgitate without ever apologizing for our classics.
Q: Why didn't you want Zohra to talk to her daughter about her relationship with her father ?
Mabrouk El Mechri: It's really hard to see a child's view of a parent disintegrate. Father or mother. I think it's almost a film in itself. That is sometimes the difficulty of leaving. I know from experience that you can be both a good father and a bad husband. I like the ambiguity that Ramzy gives him, the type of violence that he has agreed to embody. A violence of ignorance. It's courageous in these times when we want the bad guys to be very bad and perfectly unredeemable so that we have no remorse in making them disappear.
Q: You chose a narrator who is not Zohra. Was this clear from the start? How did the idea come to you ?
Mabrouk El Mechri: That was always my intention. I had more in mind the Morgan Freeman of the film The Escaped than the Ray Liotta of Goodfellas. I thought it would be better if the protagonist, with her characteristic humility and modesty, did not tell her own story. The story became a kind of tale and I liked that. Moreover, a narrator is often omniscient, I did not want to put Zohra in a situation of awareness, since the subject was precisely awareness.
Q : You seem to be very attached to working on the music of your films...
Mabrouk El Mechri: Music has a visceral importance for me. Sometimes I have the feeling that I am releasing an album rather than a film. For this film, I had the chance to meet Leon Michels who remixed tracks from the Wu-Tang Clan, a rap group with a strong connection to the world of martial arts. Leon Michels agreed to give me a series of tracks to edit, and then send them back to him to reinterpret them according to the editing. It was a wonderful and very organic collaboration. Leon is a very eclectic musician.
Q: You use mostly warm colors. How did you develop the visual identity of the film?
Mabrouk El Mechri: My objective was not to show this universe in the most realistic way possible, but to privilege above all a dramaturgy of colors and tones. I wanted to avoid a certain austerity. I wanted to show that Zohra can be happy in the world that surrounds her, as long as she extracts herself from the conflict between her and her husband. That's why she lives in a "soprano" and green suburb, rather than in grey apartment blocks. This suburb also exists.
Synopsis:
Convinced that a breakup would break her little girl's heart, Zohra cannot leave her husband Omar despite the violence she suffers. That's when she meets a Kung-Fu master who will teach her how to defend herself and to fight back!
Kung-Fu Zohra
Written and directed by Mabrouk El Mechri
Produced by Franois Kraus, Denis Pineau Valencienne
Starring Sabrina Ouazani, Ramzy Bedia, Eye Haïdara, Marie Cornillon
Music by El Michels Affair
Cinematography : Pierre-Yves Bastard
Edited by Marc Gurung
Production companies : Les Films du kiosque, Gaumont, France 2 Cinéma
Distributed by Gaumont (France)
Release date : March 9, 2022 (France)
Running time : 99 minutes
Photos : Copyright Les films du kiosque - Gaumont - France 2 cinéma - Umedia