Return of Catherine Corsini: Wild casting to find actors

What is it about? Khedija works for a wealthy Parisian family who offers to babysit her children in Corsica during the summer. He has the opportunity to return with his daughters Jessica and Farah to the island they left fifteen years ago in tragic circumstances.

While Khedija struggles with her memories, the two teenagers succumb to all the temptations of summer: surprise meetings, 400 strokes, their first romantic experience. This trip will be an opportunity for them to discover a hidden part of their history.

The composition of young actors

In order to find young actors for her film, Catherine Corsin wanted to conduct a wild casting. He was looking for unknown faces in the cinema. “We put up posters everywhere, but it was very difficult for young girls to come”, he says. He eventually met some actors and tried out for them. That’s how he discovered Esther Gohuru, who was already acting in Maimuna Dookure’s Minion.

As for Suzy Bemba, she first played the role of Khidija’s sister before being offered the role of Jessica. “I saw that she was a very good actress and offered to replace her with another young non-professional girl, who I liked at first for the role of Jessica, but the first rehearsals unfortunately did not pass. For this challenging role, where there were so many different emotions and situations to play.”, recalls the film director. In the end, Lomane de Dietrich was chosen for his relaxed attitude, calmness and unique naturalness.

Before returning from a fracture

La Fracture, Catherine Corsini’s previous feature film, and Le Retour have one thing in common: the presence of an Aisatu Diallo subject. This educator made his acting debut in the film La Fracture, for which he won a César for Best Supporting Actor.

The director wanted to find an actor for the new film: “We know you can bless someone, then quickly move on to something else in the profession. I wanted not to forget him and, above all, to take him somewhere else: to romance, to fiction. Aisatu also opened his life to me. his story His family came to the set. Thanks to him, I discovered a lot of details about the cultures of Guinea and Senegal, the relationship with the country of origin, or more specific things like women’s hairstyles.”

Four-sided writing

Catherine Corsini wrote Le Retour with Naila Giguet, a young screenwriter who graduated from FEMIS and whose mother is of Senegalese descent. “I wrote this story with her because I felt so far away from this youth that I care about. She is very nurturing; moreover, we took the name Khedija from her mother.”The director explains.

He also touched on his own history: “I have two sisters; a Corsican father who died in an accident when I was very young; A mother who couldn’t stand Corsica, where she felt confined… So many elements that draw circles and challenge this difficult territory, like the feeling of being somewhere foreign.”

format

After using Scope in her last three films, Catherine Corsini decided to go with the more classic 1.66 format: “This format was better for capturing faces and creating a sense of intensity.” He also feared that Scope would evoke a postcard aesthetic.

Confrontation

The existence of a return to the official Cannes competition is almost in doubt due to the alleged harassment against Catherine Corsini and two members of the team, as well as the possible violation of the legislation on the protection of actors, which the company Chaz Productions has already requested from the CNC (National Center for Cinema and Moving Image). by January 2023 in the amount of 680,000 euros (including 580,000 d advance and 100,000 automatic support) request.

French law provides strict frameworks for the employment of actors under the age of 16. Thus, each film must first receive a green light from the body of the Committee for the Protection of Children, which consists of representatives of various institutions (judiciary, national education, Ministry of Culture, etc.).

However, The Return includes a scene where the teenager (played by the 15-and-a-half-year-old actress at the time of filming) awakens to her sexuality by masturbating with a boy. A missing scene from the script sent to the commission, which failed to study it. If producer Elizabeth Perez admits their mistake by stating that the scene was not hidden, but added after rewriting during filming, the authorization request should still be made.

(Re)watch our meeting with the film crew during the 2023 Cannes Film Festival: