Jeju French Film Festival 2018 - Objectif Lune (Destination Moon)
France, 1969. In order to be adopted, twelve-year-old André is transferred by the authorities from Reunion Island to France and placed with Jean, a lonesome farmer living in the contryside. But André is not an orphan. His mother is waiting for him to come home for summer holidays, right behind the Moon.
Interview with Writer/Director/Producer Jimmy Grassiant
Congratulations! Why did you make your film?
I was searching for an idea for a new short film and I wanted to work on subjects like childhood and adoption. I was very shocked the day I found information and testimonies from adults who were deported from the Reunion Island to France in the 60’s to the 80’s when they were between 6 and 14 years old. Those kids were taken from their (mostly) poor families by French authorities and sent to France to be adopted. The problem was that French social services told the children’s families that their kids will come back during summer holidays and that they will go to school and have a good education, but this was a huge lie. Those kids never came back home and they were mostly adopted by French farmers and used as workers in order to repopulate metropolitan departments. More than 2000 children were deported from Reunion Island to France. Some were adopted by French families who treated them with love. But a lot of them were traumatized and abused. Some committed suicide. I shot Objectif Lune (Destination Moon) to support and to spread this important and forgotten historical French overseen knowledge.
Imagine I’m a member of the audience. Why should I watch this film?
Beside the importance of historical facts, the movie tells the story about André, an 11 year-old boy from Reunion Island, and Jean, an old widowed french farmer. Those two characters have completely different cultural backgrounds and, in a way, need to help each other to survive their emotional wounds. It is an intergenerational story with a poetic dimension: André is fascinated by the stars and thinks that his home is somewhere behind the Moon.
How do personal and universal themes work in your film?
When the kids asked French social services to go back home they were told that their parents abandoned them or that their parents were dead. So, when I worked on the script I asked myself: how can a 11 year-old child manage such a huge uprooting and destroying lie? I compared this situation to stages of mourning after the death of a relative or friend. What does a child think in such a situation? How does André see the world? How does he express anger? How does he ask for help? I think all of us adults like to remember good feelings from our childhood; would we also like to remember bad situations? Do we remember how we acted and how we tried to manage them or to escape them? Destination Moon is about growing up, about leaving childhood.
How have the script and film evolved over the course of their development?
At first it was difficult to write the script because I wanted to tell to many things in 30 minutes. And also I was very shocked by my research, so I needed some time to calm down, to get an emotional distance. to work properly on a story with a strong main character instead of a victim. The script doctor and writer, Karine Winczura, helped me a lot to re-organize ideas and thoughts. I also wanted to absolutely shoot the beginning of the movie on the Reunion Island. It was important for the movie to show the contrast of Andrés home before he comes to France. I knew that this wish was expensive and not easy to manage in the economy of a short film. Fortunately, I got regional funding from Reunion Island and it worked. I would say the script evolved with this funding, otherwise it would have been another story. Of course the project changed a lot until the editing process. I’m used to shooting scenes as precisely as possible, but for this project I wanted to shoot more than I needed because I knew that I had to look further behind my written ideas and concepts.
What type of feedback have you received so far?
For now, I’ve gotten good feedback, and the movie was selected in some international festivals such as the Rome Independent Film Festival, Jeju-do French Film Festival, Bogoshorts and others. I am very thankful for it. I remember one special feedback. French government recognized its fault in this affair only in 2014. When the film held its premiere in the south of France where I asked for the regional production funding, some local politicians thanked me after the screening. They told me that the project led to long discussions among them and that, at first, they weren’t sure about supporting it. In a way, some local politicians weren’t ready to face their own regional history, but in the end they approved the funding for the project. I was very touched about the fact that the project contributed, on its level, to a new way of thinking.
Has the feedback surprised or challenged your point of view?
This feedback surprised me. Those facts were so horrible that everyone today should, of course, support the victims in any way. But, as usual, some conservative people and political parties are still afraid to give a bad image of themselves by assuming responsibility. For me, this project was a huge challenge in different ways. I wasn’t sure I had enough experience as a filmmaker to produce, to write and to direct a fictional movie about this subject, but I felt so personally involved that I needed to do it either way.
What are you looking to achieve by having your film more visible on www.wearemovingstories.com?
I’m very thankful about the possibility of presenting Objectif Lune (Destination Moon) and its subject on wearemovingstories.com. I think it is important to talk about it outside of France. Other countries had a similar story. I think about orphans in South Korea during the war, or children who were taken from Australian Aborigines.
Who do you need to come on board (producers, sales agents, buyers, distributors, film festival directors, journalists) to amplify this film’s message?
Of course I would love to talk to all of them about the film and its subject. For now the movie was shown twice on French TV and will be screened in other international festivals until the end of 2018. I think it would be very interesting for the movie to be broadcast on TV outside of France.
What type of impact and/or reception would you like this film to have?
The historical affair about the Reunion children are absolutely unknown. There should be international knowledge about these events that lasted until the 80’s. It happened just 30 years ago. The most important thing, beside the modern colonialism aspect, is to raise questions about child protection. That’s the biggest failure in this historical affair.
What’s a key question that will help spark a debate or begin a conversation about this film?
Are adults allowed to take decisions about the life of a child?
What other projects are the key creatives developing or working on now?
At the moment I’m working on some ideas for my first feature film. I always look for subjects with a social dimension.
Interivew: November 2018
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Objectif Lune (Destination Moon)
France, 1969. In order to be adopted, twelve-year-old André is transferred by the authorities from Reunion Island to France and placed with Jean, a lonesome farmer living in the contryside. But André is not an orphan. His mother is waiting for him to come home for summer holidays, right behind the Moon.
Length: 30 min
Director: Jimmy Grassiant
Producer: Jimmy Grassiant and Eduardo Sosa Soria (Vagabundo Films)
Writer: Jimmy Grassiant and Karine Winczura
About the writer, director and producer:
JIMMY GRASSIANT:After film studies at the Université Lumière in Lyon and a Diploma in film directing at the Hamburg Film School, Jimmy Grassiant co-founded with Eduardo Sosa Soria in 2012 the Parisian company Vagabundo Films in order to support and to develop a kind of cinema that is socially committed. His short films were screened in numerous international festivals. www.jimmygrassiant.jimdo.com
Key cast: Lamine Mara, Christian Bouillette
Looking for:buyers, film festival directors and journalists
Facebook: @ObjectifLuneCM OR @jimmygrassiant OR @VagabundoFilm
Other: objectiflune@vagabundofilms.com
Funders: CNC, France Télévision, Région Occitanie, Région La Réunion, Département du Gers, ADAMI, PROCIREP