Jose Oliva |
Barcelona (EFE).- The French actor Omar Sy, who presented his latest film, “Father and Soldier” at the BCN Film Fest, about the participation of the Senegalese in the First World War alongside the French army, believes that “the cinema can be a good tool to disseminate history”.
Several things interested him in the story of the film, “beginning with the relationship between the father and the son, and then the episode of the Senegalese ‘tirailleurs’ -his family is of Senegalese origin-, the war and specifically the First War World Cup and the desire to work with Mathieu Vadepied, with whom he had shared ‘Intocable’”, in which he was the director of photography, he explained in an interview with EFE.
Set in 1917, “Father and Soldier” tells the story of Bakary, who lives in the French colony of Senegal and decides to enlist in the French army to stay with Thierno, his 17-year-old son, recruited against his will, and together they fight in World War I on the front lines in France, a country they don’t know and for which Thierno is willing to give his life.
Sy admits that this film is a certain change of course in his career, since he is known for making comedies and this is a drama: “Specifically, it is the first war film I have made and that changes many things, but I think this project has come at a good time in my acting career.”
“Father and Soldier” joins the growing current of revision of the French colonial past both in cinema and in literature with the latest novels by Pierre Lemaitre or Eric Vuillard -in these two cases about the Indochina war-, where they were fundamental French African soldiers.
Cinema to bring history closer
In this regard, Mathieu Vadepied points out in the same interview that “the film germinated from the impression that young people have not had access to this story.”
“Therefore, it was important to recognize the participation of these Franco-African soldiers in World War I, but also in World War II, in Indochina, in Algeria, and that it be transmitted to the new generations and to a more general public. wide so that they understand and are aware of that common past”, he emphasizes.
For Vadepied, “cinema is one more tool to publicize that past, perhaps with the particularity of being able to address emotions through fictional stories.” And that, he adds, “can give access to people who are not familiar with the work of historians and that cinema makes more accessible.”
Omar Sy thinks that in France there is a generation that is expressing the need to know history, so it is the right time to offer this type of creations.
“That is why there are more novels, documentaries and works by historians who talk about that colonial past and who want to question it again, something that had not been done before. There is a void to fill.” stresses.
“Untouchable” and “Lupin” mark their takeoff
Although his first popular success was the movie “Untouchable”, his career has taken off from his participation in the series “Lupin”, where he plays Assane Diop, an elusive white-collar thief and fan of the adventures of the popular Arsene Lupin, “An interesting character who can convey many values and also explain many things about who we are, first of all, France, but also France,” he says.
In the opinion of the French actor, through the characters he plays he tries to “provide food for thought, and Assane Diop is quite rich”.
Living in the United States has allowed him to “work there and give a more international dimension” to his career, as well as “a variety of jobs” that have allowed him to “evolve in a certain way.”
Sy confesses that he would like to direct his own films sometime: “It’s a growing desire and I have a story that is very dear to me and I don’t know who I can trust as a producer, so that may force me to accelerate the step to the direction”.