Interview with Romane Guéret and Lise Akoka, the directors of Ma frère

Ma frère is a film with the same characters from your series Tu préfères ? When did you feel the need to keep telling their stories?

Lise Akoka: After Tu préfères ?, we wondered about a second season. But, upon reflection, we felt that the format of the web series didn’t allow us to convey what we wanted to say. We wanted to move away from this serialized format. Moreover, we wanted to give Shirel Nataf and Fanta Kebe, our two actors, a bigger platform to explore their talent.

“Often in films, children speak like adults.”

– Lise Akoka 

Why did you choose to focus the story on the two female characters?

Romane Guéret: In Tu préfères ?, the two male characters already had a more supporting role. It’s true that this big sister relationship aspect is more common among girls. We are also two women who want to talk about women and film them. These two characters, Shaï and Djeneba, are obviously in part based on us.

Les Pires (The Worst Ones), your most recent film, received the Un Certain Regard Prize at the 2022 Festival de Cannes. What do you remember about that?

R.G.: It’s an unforgettable memory! We were doing street casting with children who had no notion about film. Cannes was about the only thing they had heard about. Sharing that with them, seeing them so proud, was amazing. And then winning the award, it was icing on the cake!

What is your fascination with this period in childhood, which plays an essential part in all your films?

L.A.: It’s true, it keeps coming back. I think we’re searching for some kind of truth, one that is difficult to grasp, because obviously films about children have always been made by adults. Personally, it’s a challenge for me, to be able to celebrate them and not having them transformed through the adult gaze. This is done in particular through dialogue, because often in films, children speak like adults.

It’s your fifth production as partners. How do you divide the work?

R.G.: We do almost everything together! But on set we each have our comfort zones. I gravitate toward the staging and Lise will take on the direction, focusing on the acting.

What would you like the viewers to take away from Ma frère?

L.A.: I’d like the public to consider this film as a love letter to these young people who are so intelligent and have a great sense of humor. Perhaps this will make people look around and think twice when they see “neighborhood kids.” It would also be wonderful if different generations would take the time and interest to learn from their language, which I find so inventive and delightful, mixing slang with innovative phrasing.