South Sentinel with Neil Schneider: His first film, his interviews are shrinking … Director Trusts

South Sentinel with Neil Schneider: His first film, his interviews are shrinking … Director Trusts

Currently in cinemas, the Sentinelle sud is the first work by Mathieu Gérault. Between the thriller and the psychological drama, the film accurately and firmly shares the horrors of the men returning from the war. Meeting with a film director.

AlloCiné: How did you come up with the idea of ​​making a film on this topic?

Mathieu Jero: It really was not an idea, but more of a feeling. I took this subject as a condition, that a person can have a war within himself, that life can be a struggle. To illustrate this, the figure of a soldier came to me quite quickly with the thickness it had after returning from the war.

That’s when we face a test or a difficulty, we break everything we went through and we often go back to childhood. And this allowed me to take on all forms of wounds: for the physical Munir, for the much more underground Christian, and then for the gesture of asylum for Henry. It was important for me to be so close to a man’s sensitivity.

I wanted to address this topic to return to the emotional search for a child, to decipher these broken personalities who face death, who return both weakened and raised through this very isolated experience. They are obviously very interesting characters.

Sentinelle sud is the first film. What was your first perception of the film?

Mathieu Jero : With this first film I wanted to take the viewer to the point where he is not going to go. I wanted to create a few tones by focusing on the characters, telling men stories, and talking about the questions we all have: Why am I here in my life? Why did I make that choice? Where does this need to love and be loved come from?

I have spoken to many professionals, psychoanalysts, and therapists, for they are the ones who speak best about soldiers: they are the ones who received them back from the war.

David Kujard (Film Producer): My first recollection of this film is reading a dialogue script with all the promise of cinema that is related to this topic. I felt like a film attached to reality, highlighted by fiction.


How did you prepare?

Mathieu Jero: Sentinelle sud is fictional, but I was inspired by real facts to explore my topic and come up with a story that made sense. There was a lot of documentation on all the wars, but especially on the French wars.

I have spoken to many professionals, psychoanalysts, and therapists, for they are the ones who speak best about soldiers: they are the ones who received them back from the war. They are fascinating because they are fascinated by their profession: their words and their anecdotes have clearly reinforced the film. But I did not want to meet the soldiers because they often find it difficult to express themselves verbally, then I needed fiction.

Simultaneously Thriller, Psychological Drama, Thriller, Social Film…: Sentinel Sud is unclassifiable. Was it voluntary?

Mathieu Jero: Never said to me: I want my film to be this or that. My first ambition was to make a film that highlighted what I wanted to express about men. So there is a response in my personal life, to the attraction I have when talking about weakness. But I’m also a big fan of the movie, so I did not want to lock myself in one genre.

There was a bet to mix an intimate trajectory with a small show and thriller.

So I wanted to have this figure of a hero / anti-hero, then this character of a soldier allowed me to reach for a gun, make action scenes, take the viewer on spectacular scenes on a journey. But the heart of the film is an underground description of male horror. What I wanted was to have a tense story to better portray the characters.

David Kujard (Film Producer): After coming to the project, after discussing it with Matthew, I immediately felt this ambition, not to register a film in its own genre. There was a bet that mixing an intimate trajectory with a small show and thriller, this is one of the true singularities of the movie compared to what we are used to watching in the movies.


You talk about the character of the protagonist, we think of Neil Schneider in the title role of Christian, but there is also Munir, played by Sofian Khames, two actors who look quite close to their character …

MG: I do not know if they are actually close to their character. Of course, they are excellent actors. So they were able to find resonance in their character through things like brotherhood, suffering in a political organization … They found something to protect themselves, and I think they invested so much in it and they were able to. Create this duo like Macada Cowboy.

There is also the character of Henry (Thomas Daloz), which is very important: at the beginning of the story he is almost dead, but it was in Henry that I placed the essential spring in the story. The first sentence we hear about him is “Henry, he is no longer there”: this sums up well the condition of all these men who, even when they return to their families, will never be what they were before.


Lucie (India Hair) seems to be a landmark, a certain normality, the only image of this breath and this hope for Christian, can you tell us a little more about this character?

MG: Lucia’s little story is that we were limited two days before the shoot. In August, India Hair informed us that she was pregnant. I had a great desire to work with him, so I did not hesitate for a second to copy his character. He became a real gift for the film. Even if Lucy is not so well represented on screen, I wish she had a real place: the fact that she is pregnant further underscores the desire for normalcy, the projects and the hopes that Christian goes through.

The film begins with a quote from Antoine de Saint-Exupery and ends with a letter reading: Was it a desire to write at the center of the story?

MG: The writing is what makes the film so French in its approach, the love of language in all its forms. I wanted to bring something very literary to the cinematic side. I turned Christian into a quiet person and considered Munir in writing as a voluntary, inventor in conveying things verbally. On Henry’s side we are on something else, on his poetry.

After spending so much time with men in the Sentinel South, I feel the need to focus on the female character.

What were your instructions when shooting the film?

MG: I got my inspiration from New Hollywood, American cinema from the 60s and 70s with Al Pacino’s debut “Horror”, “Dog’s Afternoon” … is another film that was very important: Alain Corno’s “Choice of Weapons” starring Gerard Depardieu. . We find this tough side, with these very camped heroes, with this hero who goes to the exit, despite all the attempts he wants to make. I got a lot of inspiration from the vision of this movie, with today’s story that serves the psychology of the characters.


Do you have another project in progress?

MG: The interesting thing is that after spending so much time with men at the Sentinel South, I feel the need to focus on the female character and not give up on her, to try to do the same thing we did for Christian, but this time with the female.

Matilda Fontaine’s interview on April 9, 2022, during the Reims Polar Festival.

Source: allocine

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