Thanks to her film “Les Splendides” Meryem-Bahia Arfaoui is the winner of the competition “And yet they turn” organized by Arte. The short film will be broadcast this Thursday evening on the Franco-German channel. Interview.

What is your feeling after obtaining this award and before the screening of your film this evening by Arte?

Truth be told, it’s a bit of a fairy tale because I don’t quite realize what happened yet. But I drink from the contentment of the other people who participated in this film and their joy fills me with joy.

What is your background ?

I am from Empalot and I have been working at Reynerie for two years within the DEFI Production association which supports people from career paths and integration into the cinema world. This means that I can have both hands in the cinema from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. I followed courses given by professionals of the image and the sound among others and within the framework of the course of accompaniment “The future in progress”, I was able to realize my first short film “Les Crapules” which questioned the representations that can be made of young people from neighborhoods and which made me want to make another one.

Comment did you participate in the Arte competition?

Several people told me about this contest “And yet they turn …” but I did not feel legitimate to participate. Then, finally with the girlfriends and the association we said to ourselves that we had absolutely nothing to lose and we tried the adventure! The team was 95% female and we took this shoot as a great moment in life for us. There were about thirty of us working on it and everyone gave of their time, so in itself, I had already done something huge! Then when I learned that I was one of the 30 selected I did not believe it, I told myself that we had already won everything. Then, someone from Arte called me to tell me that my short film had been bought and that the jury had loved it so much that they had decided to give it the grand prize of the competition so there… I didn’t not always realized! (laughs)

Especially since the channel offers you another project …

Yes, this first price opens up a pre-purchase contract for a 52-minute documentary that I’m already thinking about. He will tell the story of one of the actresses of the “Splendides”, Sonia Abdallah who became a driver and recently told me “Me, that’s it, I made my dream come true, now we have to make it happen. yours and that you become a director! “