Mes voisins

My Neighbours

Forum 50 2020

African migrants in Paris talk about everyday life and racism on the labour and housing markets. The chanson from which the film takes its title sings of misery on people’s own doorstep. Hondo then switches to another mode to continue his analysis of social conditions: never has the post-colonial state of the world been summarised as succinctly as in the closing animated sequence.

by Med Hondo France 1971 Arabic, French 35’ Colour & Black/White

Crew

Written and Directed by	Med Hondo
Cinematography	François Catonné
Sound	Alain Contraud
Animation	Jean Michel Quesne, Marc Chartier
Digital Restoration	Arsenal – Institut für Film und Videokunst

Med Hondo

Born in 1936 in Atar, Mauritania. He emigrated to France in the late 1950s, where he founded a theatre group in Paris and turned towards film. His first feature-length work Soleil Ô (Berlinale Forum 1971), attracted international attention. His films address the history of the African continent and its diaspora. He died in Paris in 2019.

Filmography

1969 Balade aux sources (Ballad to the Springs); 25 min. · Partout ou peut-être nulle part (Everywhere, or Maybe Nowhere); 30 min. 1970 Soleil Ô (Oh, Sun); 108 min. 1971 Mes voisins (My Neighbours); 35 min. 1973 Les Bicots-nègres, vos voisins (Arabs and Niggers, Your Neighbours); 190 min. 1977 Nous aurons toute la mort pour dormer; 160 min. 1979 West Indies, ou les nègres marrons de la liberté (West Indies: The Fugitive Slaves of Liberty); 110 min. 1986 Sarraounia; 120 min., Forum 1987 1994 Lumière noire (Black Light); 104 min. 1998 Watani, un monde sans mal; 78 min. 2004 Fatima, l’Algérienne de Dakar (Fatima, the Algerian Woman of Dakar); 89 min.

Bio- & filmography as of Berlinale 2022