Interview with Rahma Benhamou El Madani and translation from French to English by Beti Ellerson.

Through her films, Rahma Benhamou El Madani discovers and examines her multiple identities. Her latest film Tagnawittude also allows her to rediscover gnawa music and its mystical practices.

Rahma, your identity is of multiple origins: Algeria, Morocco and France. Tell us about your background and how it has formed and influenced you.

I was born in Algeria, in a small village near Oran. My father and mother are Moroccan, they settled in this village, which is where Marcel Cerdan* was born in fact, where many colonial farmers lived from the produce of the vineyard. My parents left Morocco and the Atlas to cross the border to Algeria, my father often went there as a seasonal worker. All their children were born in this village. Then at independence, there was the conflict between Western Sahara regarding the borders between Algeria and Morocco, as has been the case in other African countries. The conflict became more and more serious. In 1968 my father left Algeria and went to France. In 1972, worried about the turn of events, my parents decided to leave Algeria definitively and we settled in France, where my father again worked in the vineyards.

So, cut off from my Moroccan roots, I discovered Morocco and the Atlas at ten years old during the summer holidays. My Algerian roots have been painfully severed. I try to reconnect with these roots through my films.

It took me a long time to find this equilibrium because the elders do not realise that their paths shape us and that they must leave traces for us, so that these memories are not lost. This is what I try to find again, the memory of our world intertwined with each other. The history of Morocco, of Algeria and also of France as it relates to these two countries.

Your training and interests are just as diverse! Language sciences, radio broadcasting and then cinema, do they have points of convergence? How did you come to cinema by this trajectory?

As far back as I can remember storytelling was important to me. I did a stint in language sciences with the idea of studying journalism... and an internship with AFP (Agence France Presse) thanks to a chief editor, also from Algeria, who took me under his wing, and convinced me to take my time with my subjects... So I chose to learn by working in the field rather than through school. I definitely chose the more difficult path... I did not know yet that I was heading toward cinema, it seemed particularly difficult to access for several reasons. I continued my studies while trying my hand at radio broadcasting-with political debates, music programs and radio interviews... my experience ended when I started to conduct a variety of radio documentaries. Writing was already very present in my life. And at the time cameras were heavy, so that when I was looking for information about courses related to the image at Fine Arts schools, or the AFPA (National Association for Adult Vocational Training), I realised that the curriculum was reserved for men. At the time, I did photography in the absence of the moving picture. Hence, cinema came into my life through photography.

Then life had it that with my companion, I left Bordeaux for Lille.

Read more on [African Women in Cinema Blog]