“The Dam” by Franco-Lebanese filmmaker Ali Cherri, shot near the Merowé dam, in Sudan, was presented this Tuesday at the Quinzaine des Réalisateurs.
With our special correspondent in Cannes, Elisabeth Lequeret
Visual artist, fascinated by clay and mud, Ali Cherri won the silver lion at the Venice Biennale last April for his work, huge terracotta statues that he calls his “titans”.
In continuity, he shot his first film in a brick factory, in Sudan, in 2018. A particularly difficult shoot: “ It was quite hard to get access to the filming location, especially at the roadblock. Politically, it’s a very tense question and furthermore, there was the revolution. So it was quite an incredible adventure. We still managed to finish the film but it was not won at all “.
“The dam” follows in the footsteps of Maher, a brickyard worker in northern Sudan. And Maher has a secret, he goes to the desert to build a huge clay creature, which comes to life one fine day.
Weaving realism and fantasy, formally magnificent, this first film reveals the splendours of these little-known landscapes.