The words women spoke one day

In 1962, Yann Le Masson filmed Algerian women activists as they were being released from prison in France. More than 50 years later, now that the soundtrack has disappeared, the director sets out to find these women. A film investigation that tells their silent story. A film-essay on the cinema that depicts their disappearance, and keeps them alive forever.

«I made a film in 2004, Algérie, d’autres regards, in which I filmed French directors who had made documentary films against the Algerian war. It was in this context that I met Yann Le Masson, Olga Poliakoff, René Vautier, Pierre Clément and Cécile Decugis… I remained quite close to them. At one point, Yann told me about these images that he recovered in the early 2000s, around the time I met him. Yann had a project, but he was probably already quite too old to get started. So at one point, he told me to do it myself. My entry point into this story was activist filmmakers. I have no particular connection with Algeria. I think it’s important to make the films that we want to make, even if they talk about a reality with which we have no biographical link, but because it’s something that we believe is important to tell. Something that calls out to us enough for there to be a trigger, a necessity. I think this story has as much to do with France as with Algeria.»

«The archives are almost as present as the images in shooting, because I think these images stand out. What these women say, what they said, is lost anyway. The work I do with lip readers tells us that even with all the efforts we can make, the avenues of interpretation are so numerous that the difference between one syllable and another can completely change the meaning of a sentence. In any case, with the loss of the soundtrack, what was said precisely that day is lost; on the other hand, the fact that they said something, remains and it allows us to tell something of their relationship with this moment of hope and the life that followed. What interested me was to succeed in creating for the spectator a sort of link with the women who are filmed. There must be this attempt at subtitling, a few words which show that they speak about the future of women in Algeria.»

– Raphaël Pillosio