Directed by Hind Meddeb
co-directed by Thim Naccache
featuring Souleymane Mohammad
«an eye-opening exploration of the migrant experience in the French capital’s Stalingrad district»

Summer 2016, Paris, refugees are camping in the Stalingrad district. The film follows their daily life and reveals a hidden part of the city, by the side of the invisible ones. A physical labyrinth added to the bureaucratic labyrinth already in place – the city turns away. Controls, round-ups, police raids, fencing. How can you live in a space that prevents you from existing? From out of the group, the camera follows Souleymane, a young refugee from Darfur, whose poems transfigure the violence of the situation.

Paris, summer 2016. Refugees arriving from Sudan, Ethiopia, Erythrea, Somalia and Afghanistan have no other choice than to sleep in the streets. Makeshift camps start growing in Stalingrad district.
I witnessed the French state’s violence against these new immigrants and decided to film their daily life, between police raids, massive arrests, and closed immigration offices. I made this film to share my experience of their side of the story.
Until that night, when I met Souleymane, a Sudanese teenager who lost everything during the war in Darfur. Whenever others denied his humanity, whenever he faced torture, slavery or abuse, Souleymane found solace in the one thing nobody could take from him: his poetry. For him, each poem is a way to say the unspeakable, to sublimate the violence he endured throughout his journey. I film Souleymane in his Parisian wanderings, to the beat of his poetic ramblings.

Hind Meddeb

Hind Meddeb currently works between Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. She mostly films by herself creating an intimacy with the characters she follows.
Between 2011 and 2013, Hind Meddeb directed two feature documentaries observing the Arab revolutions through the eyes of young musicians in the slums of Cairo and the poor neighborhoods across Tunisia. She shaped the word “Electro Chaabi” and made the world discover this new musical genre. Selected in dozens of festivals, “Electro Chaabi” premiered in BFI London Film Festival.
In her new film, “Paris Stalingrad”, selected in Cinéma du Réel and TIFF, she shows to the world a hidden side of Paris, while the city closes doors to asylum seekers, creating new borders downtown.

With a scientific background, Thim Naccache did his training as a filmmaker at the "European Film College" in Denmark, where he directed his first short movie, "Breaking in" in 2005. In 2006, he codirected the documentary “A Nation Journey“ the rise of Evo Morales, a Native American peasant to the summit of the state. In 2013, he directed "Misconception", a short movie selected at Berlin International Short Film Festival.
In 2016, during a documentary shoot in the Grande-Synthe refugee camp, he met volunteers who alerted him about the existence of the Stalingrad camp in Paris. Surprised by the low media coverage given to this situation, he began to film the daily lives of refugees arriving in Paris. Along with Hind Meddeb, he then embarked on a long-term shoot.




DIRECTOR

Hind Meddeb

 

CO-DIRECTOR

Thim Naccache

 

CINEMATOGRAPHY

Hind Meddeb, Thim Naccache

 

PRODUCER

Sylvie Brenet

 

CO-PRODUCER

Abel Nahmias

 

 

 

WITH

Lami T. Nagawo, Souleymane Mohammad, Valérie Osouf, Houssam el Assimi, Adam Misscall, Galaxy Mohammad, Agathe Nadimi, Ousmane, Lamrana, Johan Corceron

 

PRODUCERS ASSISTANTS

Raphaël Deslandes, Léa Sansonetti

 

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER

Mike Lerner

 

PRODUCTION COMPANIES

Les Films du Sillage, Echo Films

 

POST-PRODUCTION

Seppia, Black Milk

 

EDITOR

Sophie Pouleau

 

SOUND DESIGN

Damien Tronchot

 

SOUND EFFECTS

André Fèvre

 

COLOR GRADING

Christophe Reynaud

 

TRANSLATERS

Fred Chast, Philippe Aronson, Michelange Quay, Omer Omrane, Abubaker Mohamed Imam

 

MUSIC

Bachar Mar Khalife « Ya Nas » / InFiné Music

 

GRAPHICS

Myriam Barchechat

SPECIAL THANKS

Amina Meddeb, Joseph Paris, Abel Nahmias, Michel Zana

 

THANKS

Alex Akoka, Shona Bhattacharyya, Nour Abichou, Clara Menais, Dina Amer, Milo Peret, Catherine Cody, Jane Sautière, Théo Stefanini, Johan Corceron owner of the garage Carrosserie Précisium Jcp Auto

 

GRANTS

Grant “Brouillon d’un rêve” of SCAM (The civil society of multimedia authors in France)

Writing and Development Grant of CNC (National Film and Moving Image Centre in France)

Writing Grant of the “Région Ile de France”

Development Grant of Procirep Angoa

Production Grant “Fonds Images de la Diversité” of CNC

Production Grant of “Région Grand Est”

Production Grant of “Arab Found for Art and Culture” (AFAC)