During confinement, a Russian dentist is kidnapped by thugs – broken arms category – who order him to pull their golden teeth out of good people living in a city. This is the pitch of “Casse du siècle”, the short film by Saïd Belktibia, which will be broadcast this Monday evening on Canal + as part of an evening, “6 X Confiné.es”, marking the first anniversary of the start. of the first confinement, linked to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The director from Noisy-le-Sec, a historical member of the Kourtrajmé collective alongside Ladj Ly, tells us the story of this 20-minute film, both funny and disturbing.
How did you come up with the idea for this short film?
This is the true story of a dentist, who exists in my neighborhood and cares for families from right to left. In his country, Bulgaria, he is a real dentist but does not have the papers to practice in France. I had the idea of having him kidnapped by three broken arms so that he would tear from the inhabitants the only thing they had left, namely their golden teeth.
In one of the scenes, we see the dentist riding his bike at night on a deserted ring road. How is it possible ?
It’s the magic of cinema! We tried to be smart. The shooting took place during the end of the year holidays, hence the little traffic on the periphery.
How did the shooting go?
We had extremely strict health protocols. All people were to be tested, quarantined, they were not to meet anyone, they had to be masked offstage. One person was only responsible for enforcing the rules. Especially since the majority of the actors were old people, who lived in Aubervilliers, above the Jacques-Prévert nursery school where we filmed. It was difficult and extremely enjoyable to spin them. it took them out of their daily lives.
The theme of this evening is confinement. What did you want to express?
I wanted to talk about the consequences, the difficulties that this created. It widened the inequalities in care, I wanted to talk about medical deserts. Here, people do not necessarily have a mutual health insurance, it becomes a luxury to take care of themselves. It is for example my mother, who tells me that she cannot change a tooth because it costs 500 euros. There are thousands, millions, in this situation.
How do you experience this period when you are in the cinema?
The idea is not to let go, not to give in, to continue to bring cinema to life through writing, through the development of projects. I am more in the hope and in the work.
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