Je suis né d'une cigogne
Encyclopedia
Je suis né d'une cigogne (Children of the Stork) is a 1999 French road movie
directed by Tony Gatlif
, starring Romain Duris
, Rona Hartner
, Ouassini Embarek, Christine Pignet and Marc Nouyrigat. Following its French release, it received mixed reviews but was nominated for a Golden Bayard at the International Festival of Francophone Film in Namur
, Belgium.
The film deals with themes like social exclusion and illegal immigration, along with references to the Romani, as in the other films by the director. Gatlif has also employed the French director Jean-Luc Godard
's New Wave
techniques in this film.
) living with his mother in state housing, and the other his girlfriend Louna (Rona Hartner
), who is a hairdresser and has the bailiffs after her, reflect on the lack of meaning in their lives, their society and the system. In a spirit of rebellion against everything, they hit the road and what follows is an anarchic adventure. A teenage Arab
immigrant named Ali (Ouassini Embarek) enters the story. Ali's family tries to hide its ethnic origins by going to extreme measures in switching to French customs.
The trio start wreaking havoc, robbing shops and stealing cars. On their way, they come across an injured stork with a broken wing. The stork speaks to them and says that it is an Algerian refugee, on its way to Germany to reunite with its family. The trio adopt the stork as their father, name it Mohammed, and forge a passport to enable the stork to cross the French–German border.
. The third character, the Arab immigrant, Ali (played by Ouassini Embarek), is going through an identity crisis and has run away from his family, who are trying to distance themselves from their ethnic origins by, for example, adopting French names. Ali is shown to be interested in current affairs and is also shown reading Karl Marx
. The other character, the stork, represents illegal immigrants.
The film encountered production problems due to a quarrel between Rona Hartner and Gatlif which led to her walking out midway. This resulted in her abrupt disappearance from the plot in the middle until they patched up much later.
" technique of early films by Godard
, to explore themes of border
crossings and social alienation
.
and nonconformity, making use of characters like a speaking stork, and also its filming techniques like jump cut
s and multiple exposure
s, the film feels like a "a blatant homage to the works of Jean-Luc Godard", and the plot "looks like a crazy mélange of Godard's À bout de souffle, Pierrot le fou
and Weekend". In the reviewer's opinion, Gatlif has overdone these techniques, leading to the film's ending up "far more substantial and worthy than a shameless appropriation of another director's technique". ACiD
remarked that with his boldness and unconventional style, Gatlif has started a new New Wave trend, which would serve as a notice for both amateur filmmakers and professional film-makers. Chronic'art remarked that the film can be placed between the worse and the better among the works inspired by Godard. Though the filming techniques are similar to Godard's, the film falls short in its dealing with the unconventional themes, avoiding providing solutions, and rather ending up being a mere "passive acquiescence" reflecting on the works of revolutionaries of the era, which is far from rising up to revolt as one would expect in a Godard movie. Time Out London was also critical of Gatlif's attempts at Godard, calling it "offbeam".
and surrealism
". The stork character is a "metaphorical stand-in" for the illegal immigrant, he added. "While birds can cross international borders at ease, human beings generally cannot": Tony Gatlif deals with this lesser freedom that human beings possess with his "well intended irony", using the stork. On forging the passports for the stork and the need for 'papers' while crossing borders, Gatlif said mockingly in an interview that "in France there are 1.5 million birds and 1.5 million foreigners. The difference is that the bird is free, because he has no ID. He flies to Africa, to the wealthy countries and to developing countries. It makes no difference to him. He is an alien everywhere". ACiD
called this "poetic" while Time Out London found it "woolly and unilluminating". There are also a number of "in-joke
s and references to French cinema" which a viewer might miss in the first viewing, observed Films de France, citing scenes such as one which is a parody on an awards ceremony and one of an austere reviewer "rubber stamping films with trite stock phrases". Chronic'art found these scenes heavy because of the limitations of a work in which the director "at his pleasure distills his personal tastes".
coupled with Godard's techniques give it a 1970s feel, observed a reviewer for Télérama
. Though it re-lives the avante-garde of the past, it is a bit retro for the current times, which bores its viewers, he added. Les Inrockuptibles
also found the theme "dated", adding that it could very well have been a documentary by some non-profit organisation like GISTI
. Chronic'art remarked that mere quoting of Marx or Che Guevera would not make the film, with its rather common theme of socially disillusioned, unemployed youth in revolt, achieve anything. It also called the depictions of idiotic CRS
personnel and militant NF activists clichéd.
in the official section and received praise for its unconventional elements, such as the talking stork.
The Festival Internacional de Cine de Río de Janeiro
sreened the film in the non-competitive Panorama du cinéma mondial section, along with 27 other films from around the world.
In 2008, the film was screened at L'Alternativa, Festival de Cine Independiente de Barcelona in the parallels section, La pasión gitana, along with a selection of other films directed by Tony Gatlif with Romani themes.
as a failure. ACiD
gave it a positive review, lauding Gatlif's bold depiction of absurdity. Romain Duris and Rona Hartner's performance was described as "beautiful" and as complemented by Ouassini Embarek's, which was described as "brilliant". In summary, the reviewer suggested the film be called "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly", citing the mixed topics dealt with, and added that it takes the viewers "beyond the real, beyond the borders and everything one can imagine".
A review by James Travers forFilms de France called it the "most unconventional" of all road movies, with its "insanely anarchic portrait of adolescent rebellion", adding that it is an "ingenious parable of social exclusion and immigration in an uncaring society". Travers also wrote that the film's editing and narrative techniques turn into a plus, making it "refreshingly fresh and original", adding that the "patchwork narrative style" suits the rebellious nature of the characters very well. Owing to the unconventionality of the film, Louna's disappearance from the plot in the middle does not look very obvious, he added. Les Inrockuptibles
called it a "tragicomic fable on the notions of borders and free movement of people" and added that the film's use of comedy and disjunctive narrative style is only partially successful. Though not conventionally beautiful, the film impresses the viewers with its "energy, boldness and humor in places when it doesn't leave them stranded", the reviewer concluded.
Road movie
A road movie is a film genre in which the main character or characters leave home to travel from place to place. They usually leave home to escape their current lives.-History:...
directed by Tony Gatlif
Tony Gatlif
Tony Gatlif is a French film director of Romani ethnicity who also works as a screenwriter, composer, actor, and producer.- Biography :...
, starring Romain Duris
Romain Duris
-Life:Born on 28 May 1974 in Paris, son of an engineer-architect father, Duris studied arts at university. He was noticed in the street by a casting director whilst waiting in a queue in 1993 and offered a part in the 1994 Cédric Klapisch film Le péril jeune...
, Rona Hartner
Rona Hartner
Rona Hartner is a Romanian actress and singer.-External links:...
, Ouassini Embarek, Christine Pignet and Marc Nouyrigat. Following its French release, it received mixed reviews but was nominated for a Golden Bayard at the International Festival of Francophone Film in Namur
Namur (city)
Namur is a city and municipality in Wallonia, in southern Belgium. It is both the capital of the province of Namur and of Wallonia....
, Belgium.
The film deals with themes like social exclusion and illegal immigration, along with references to the Romani, as in the other films by the director. Gatlif has also employed the French director Jean-Luc Godard
Jean-Luc Godard
Jean-Luc Godard is a French-Swiss film director, screenwriter and film critic. He is often identified with the 1960s French film movement, French Nouvelle Vague, or "New Wave"....
's New Wave
French New Wave
The New Wave was a blanket term coined by critics for a group of French filmmakers of the late 1950s and 1960s, influenced by Italian Neorealism and classical Hollywood cinema. Although never a formally organized movement, the New Wave filmmakers were linked by their self-conscious rejection of...
techniques in this film.
Plot
Two French pals, one an unemployed young man named Otto (Romain DurisRomain Duris
-Life:Born on 28 May 1974 in Paris, son of an engineer-architect father, Duris studied arts at university. He was noticed in the street by a casting director whilst waiting in a queue in 1993 and offered a part in the 1994 Cédric Klapisch film Le péril jeune...
) living with his mother in state housing, and the other his girlfriend Louna (Rona Hartner
Rona Hartner
Rona Hartner is a Romanian actress and singer.-External links:...
), who is a hairdresser and has the bailiffs after her, reflect on the lack of meaning in their lives, their society and the system. In a spirit of rebellion against everything, they hit the road and what follows is an anarchic adventure. A teenage Arab
Arab
Arab people, also known as Arabs , are a panethnicity primarily living in the Arab world, which is located in Western Asia and North Africa. They are identified as such on one or more of genealogical, linguistic, or cultural grounds, with tribal affiliations, and intra-tribal relationships playing...
immigrant named Ali (Ouassini Embarek) enters the story. Ali's family tries to hide its ethnic origins by going to extreme measures in switching to French customs.
The trio start wreaking havoc, robbing shops and stealing cars. On their way, they come across an injured stork with a broken wing. The stork speaks to them and says that it is an Algerian refugee, on its way to Germany to reunite with its family. The trio adopt the stork as their father, name it Mohammed, and forge a passport to enable the stork to cross the French–German border.
Casting and characterisation
The film's four main characters represent the "most vulnerable sections" of society, in tune with Gatlif's earlier films portraying "social outcasts and racial minorities". Otto represents the section of unemployed youth who are neither rich nor qualified, with no hopes for a job in the future. Louna represents the underpaid who are exploited by their employers. The above characters are played by the same duo, Romain Duris and Rona Hartner, who played the leading roles in Gatlif's previous film, Gadjo diloGadjo dilo
Gadjo dilo is a 1997 film, directed and written by Tony Gatlif. The title means "Crazy Gadjo [non-Gypsy]" in Romani.Most of the film was shot at the village of Creţuleşti some kilometers from Bucharest and some of the actors are local Romani people.-Plot:...
. The third character, the Arab immigrant, Ali (played by Ouassini Embarek), is going through an identity crisis and has run away from his family, who are trying to distance themselves from their ethnic origins by, for example, adopting French names. Ali is shown to be interested in current affairs and is also shown reading Karl Marx
Karl Marx
Karl Heinrich Marx was a German philosopher, economist, sociologist, historian, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. His ideas played a significant role in the development of social science and the socialist political movement...
. The other character, the stork, represents illegal immigrants.
The film encountered production problems due to a quarrel between Rona Hartner and Gatlif which led to her walking out midway. This resulted in her abrupt disappearance from the plot in the middle until they patched up much later.
Themes and analysis
The film adopts the "New WaveFrench New Wave
The New Wave was a blanket term coined by critics for a group of French filmmakers of the late 1950s and 1960s, influenced by Italian Neorealism and classical Hollywood cinema. Although never a formally organized movement, the New Wave filmmakers were linked by their self-conscious rejection of...
" technique of early films by Godard
Jean-Luc Godard
Jean-Luc Godard is a French-Swiss film director, screenwriter and film critic. He is often identified with the 1960s French film movement, French Nouvelle Vague, or "New Wave"....
, to explore themes of border
Border
Borders define geographic boundaries of political entities or legal jurisdictions, such as governments, sovereign states, federated states and other subnational entities. Some borders—such as a state's internal administrative borders, or inter-state borders within the Schengen Area—are open and...
crossings and social alienation
Social alienation
The term social alienation has many discipline-specific uses; Roberts notes how even within the social sciences, it “is used to refer both to a personal psychological state and to a type of social relationship”...
.
Gatlif's take on the New Wave
The reviewer in Film de France remarked that with its themes like absurdityAbsurdity
An absurdity is a thing that is extremely unreasonable, so as to be foolish or not taken seriously, or the state of being so. "Absurd" is an adjective used to describe an absurdity, e.g., “this encyclopedia article is absurd”. It derives from the Latin absurdusm meaning "out of tune", hence...
and nonconformity, making use of characters like a speaking stork, and also its filming techniques like jump cut
Jump cut
A jump cut is a cut in film editing and vloging in which two sequential shots of the same subject are taken from camera positions that vary only slightly. This type of edit causes the subject of the shots to appear to "jump" position in a discontinuous way...
s and multiple exposure
Multiple exposure
In photography, a multiple exposure is the superimposition of two or more individual exposures to create a single photograph. The exposure values may or may not be identical to each other.-Overview:...
s, the film feels like a "a blatant homage to the works of Jean-Luc Godard", and the plot "looks like a crazy mélange of Godard's À bout de souffle, Pierrot le fou
Pierrot le fou
Pierrot le fou is a 1965 French film directed by Jean-Luc Godard, starring Anna Karina and Jean-Paul Belmondo. The film is based on Obsession, a novel by Lionel White. It was Jean-Luc Godard's tenth feature film, released between Alphaville and Masculin, féminin...
and Weekend". In the reviewer's opinion, Gatlif has overdone these techniques, leading to the film's ending up "far more substantial and worthy than a shameless appropriation of another director's technique". ACiD
ACiD Productions
ACiD Productions is a digital art group. Founded in 1990, the group originally specialized in ANSI artwork for BBSes. More recently, they have extended their reach into other graphical media and computer software development...
remarked that with his boldness and unconventional style, Gatlif has started a new New Wave trend, which would serve as a notice for both amateur filmmakers and professional film-makers. Chronic'art remarked that the film can be placed between the worse and the better among the works inspired by Godard. Though the filming techniques are similar to Godard's, the film falls short in its dealing with the unconventional themes, avoiding providing solutions, and rather ending up being a mere "passive acquiescence" reflecting on the works of revolutionaries of the era, which is far from rising up to revolt as one would expect in a Godard movie. Time Out London was also critical of Gatlif's attempts at Godard, calling it "offbeam".
Satirical elements
The film is packed with a number of references to "social issues and political theory", especially on the border crossings. Yet a reviewer for Films de France found it to be not so "heavy", thanks to the unintentional flaws in the techniques used. He observed that the film treats them using "black comedyBlack comedy
A black comedy, or dark comedy, is a comic work that employs black humor or gallows humor. The definition of black humor is problematic; it has been argued that it corresponds to the earlier concept of gallows humor; and that, as humor has been defined since Freud as a comedic act that anesthetizes...
and surrealism
Surrealism
Surrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s, and is best known for the visual artworks and writings of the group members....
". The stork character is a "metaphorical stand-in" for the illegal immigrant, he added. "While birds can cross international borders at ease, human beings generally cannot": Tony Gatlif deals with this lesser freedom that human beings possess with his "well intended irony", using the stork. On forging the passports for the stork and the need for 'papers' while crossing borders, Gatlif said mockingly in an interview that "in France there are 1.5 million birds and 1.5 million foreigners. The difference is that the bird is free, because he has no ID. He flies to Africa, to the wealthy countries and to developing countries. It makes no difference to him. He is an alien everywhere". ACiD
ACiD Productions
ACiD Productions is a digital art group. Founded in 1990, the group originally specialized in ANSI artwork for BBSes. More recently, they have extended their reach into other graphical media and computer software development...
called this "poetic" while Time Out London found it "woolly and unilluminating". There are also a number of "in-joke
In-joke
An in-joke, also known as an inside joke or in joke, is a joke whose humour is clear only to people who are in a particular social group, occupation, or other community of common understanding...
s and references to French cinema" which a viewer might miss in the first viewing, observed Films de France, citing scenes such as one which is a parody on an awards ceremony and one of an austere reviewer "rubber stamping films with trite stock phrases". Chronic'art found these scenes heavy because of the limitations of a work in which the director "at his pleasure distills his personal tastes".
Political alienation
The film's references to revolutionaries like Karl Marx, Che Guevera and Guy DebordGuy Debord
Guy Ernest Debord was a French Marxist theorist, writer, filmmaker, member of the Letterist International, founder of a Letterist faction, and founding member of the Situationist International . He was also briefly a member of Socialisme ou Barbarie.-Early Life:Guy Debord was born in Paris in 1931...
coupled with Godard's techniques give it a 1970s feel, observed a reviewer for Télérama
Télérama
Télérama is a weekly French magazine owned by Le Monde S.A. Its primary contents are television and radio listings, though the magazine also prints film, theatre, music and book reviews, as well as cover stories and feature articles of cultural interest. The name is a contraction of its earlier...
. Though it re-lives the avante-garde of the past, it is a bit retro for the current times, which bores its viewers, he added. Les Inrockuptibles
Les Inrockuptibles
Les Inrockuptibles is a French cultural magazine. Started as a monthly magazine in 1986, it became weekly in 1995. The name is a play on "Les Incorruptibles", the French title of the American television series The Untouchables...
also found the theme "dated", adding that it could very well have been a documentary by some non-profit organisation like GISTI
GISTI
GISTI is a French non-profit human rights organization created in 1972 to protect the legal and political rights of foreigners and immigrants and to advocate freedom of movement across borders....
. Chronic'art remarked that mere quoting of Marx or Che Guevera would not make the film, with its rather common theme of socially disillusioned, unemployed youth in revolt, achieve anything. It also called the depictions of idiotic CRS
Compagnies Républicaines de Sécurité
The Compagnies Républicaines de Sécurité are the riot control forces and general reserve of the French National Police. The CRS were created on 8 December 1944 and the first units were organised by 31 January 1945. The CRS were reorganized in 1948...
personnel and militant NF activists clichéd.
Release
The film was screened at the 1999 Festival International du Film Francophone de Namur, in Belgium, competing against films from Québec, France, Vietnam, Belgium, Sénégal and Egypt for the Golden Bayard award in the Best Film category, which was won by Christine Carrière's Nur der Mond schaut zu. The film received rave reviews for its rare courage in presenting disconcerting themes such as unemployment and illegal immigration. In 2000, it was screened at the International Film Festival RotterdamInternational Film Festival Rotterdam
The International Film Festival Rotterdam is an annual film festival held in various cinemas in Rotterdam, Netherlands held at the end of January. It is approximately comparable in size to other major European festivals such as Cannes, Venice, Berlin, and Locarno...
in the official section and received praise for its unconventional elements, such as the talking stork.
The Festival Internacional de Cine de Río de Janeiro
Festival do Rio
The Festival do Rio is an international film festival in Rio de Janeiro.-History:The festival was the result of a 1999 merger of two previous film festivals, the Rio Cine Festival and the Mostra Banco Nacional de Cinema....
sreened the film in the non-competitive Panorama du cinéma mondial section, along with 27 other films from around the world.
In 2008, the film was screened at L'Alternativa, Festival de Cine Independiente de Barcelona in the parallels section, La pasión gitana, along with a selection of other films directed by Tony Gatlif with Romani themes.
Critical reception
Time Out London called it "far more fanciful and pretentitious" than Gatlif's earlier films and also regarded Gatlif's treatment of GodardJean-Luc Godard
Jean-Luc Godard is a French-Swiss film director, screenwriter and film critic. He is often identified with the 1960s French film movement, French Nouvelle Vague, or "New Wave"....
as a failure. ACiD
ACiD Productions
ACiD Productions is a digital art group. Founded in 1990, the group originally specialized in ANSI artwork for BBSes. More recently, they have extended their reach into other graphical media and computer software development...
gave it a positive review, lauding Gatlif's bold depiction of absurdity. Romain Duris and Rona Hartner's performance was described as "beautiful" and as complemented by Ouassini Embarek's, which was described as "brilliant". In summary, the reviewer suggested the film be called "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly", citing the mixed topics dealt with, and added that it takes the viewers "beyond the real, beyond the borders and everything one can imagine".
A review by James Travers forFilms de France called it the "most unconventional" of all road movies, with its "insanely anarchic portrait of adolescent rebellion", adding that it is an "ingenious parable of social exclusion and immigration in an uncaring society". Travers also wrote that the film's editing and narrative techniques turn into a plus, making it "refreshingly fresh and original", adding that the "patchwork narrative style" suits the rebellious nature of the characters very well. Owing to the unconventionality of the film, Louna's disappearance from the plot in the middle does not look very obvious, he added. Les Inrockuptibles
Les Inrockuptibles
Les Inrockuptibles is a French cultural magazine. Started as a monthly magazine in 1986, it became weekly in 1995. The name is a play on "Les Incorruptibles", the French title of the American television series The Untouchables...
called it a "tragicomic fable on the notions of borders and free movement of people" and added that the film's use of comedy and disjunctive narrative style is only partially successful. Though not conventionally beautiful, the film impresses the viewers with its "energy, boldness and humor in places when it doesn't leave them stranded", the reviewer concluded.