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Goal of using specifics to highlight the universal
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FOLLOWING previous filming experience in Africa, mostly during the Ivorian Civil War, Belgian director Benoit Mariage decided to go the extra mile with his 2014 movie “Scouting for Zebras.”
“Making this film wasn’t easy,” he tells Shanghai Daily. “There’s no structure to make movies in the Ivory Coast. But there’s a will and there’s good energy, the people are very happy.”
Late last month, China’s 20th Fete de la Francophonie, a French language cultural festival, invited Mariage to screen “Scouting for Zebras” at Shanghai Normal University and share his experiences on the making of the movie with the students.
Mariage says he decided to make the movie after shadowing an eccentric football agent for three weeks while he was recruiting African players for European clubs.
“Scouting for Zebras” depicts this trade of “Africans as merchandise,” with Mariage’s actor friend Benoit Poelvoorde playing the agent, Jose, who develops a father-son relationship with street kid and talented football player Yaya (Marc Zinga).
This is the third collaboration between Mariage and Poelvoorde, and the director encouraged the actor to adopt a Brussels accent to portray the agent accurately.
“The script was formed after my experience of observing the agent,” Mariage states. “Seeing this man in his element was a great inspiration for the actors and for the making of this movie.”
The director tackles the differences between Europe and Africa, especially when it comes to Europe imposing its materialistic and financial values on Africa.
He favors creating movies drawn from moments filled with comedy and tragedy in life, believing viewers worldwide can relate to these elements. “I hope it has some resonance with Chinese audiences, as there’s lots of emotion in it that I want audiences to feel,” Mariage says.
He says he is repeatedly inspired to make movies drawn from his own life experiences. In 1999, he directed “The Carriers Are Waiting” — which he describes as an absurd and ironic story — where Mariage transfers conflicts with his own father to the plot.
The father in “The Carriers Are Waiting,” a callous newspaper photojournalist, forces his son to break the world record for opening, walking through and closing a door, in order to win a car.
“I like to show what I see on a personal level,” Mariage explains. “I think the more specific you are, the more universal you become.”
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