interview de Nourid Bouzid concernant BEZNESS-641
Where did the idea for this story come from? Male prostitution is rarely shown in the cinema, or only in a toned down way.
I wanted to create a narrative using the East-West relationship but by avoiding the economic and political aspects and focusing instead on the psychological and cultural impact, the effects of civilization, if you like. This conflict between the East and West didn’t interest me. I felt it was more important to deal with situations created by this relationship between two civilizations. This conflict takes shape through the characters, particularly Roufa. In the dual relationships that he maintains with the foreigners, his clients, on the one hand, and with his entourage on the other. This duality is necessarily a painful experience. In choosing a gigolo, I was also able to tackle and develop a modern character. We are bombarded with literature and above all with audio-visual productions made for the mass audience, usually from Egypt where the very academic dramatic style rejects this kind of character. These gigolos are typical of the false illusions that our society feeds on. People face the void when they want to project themselves into the future, through lack of money, frustration or deprivation… and through a lack of solutions, on a cultural level. In Tunisia, the term "Bezness" has become a generic term. A project that is grounded in nothing but dreams and that manages all the same to reach fruition in a sort of precarious balance, in the shape of fleeting fantasies. A delicate balance that is soon broken and that you can only tolerate for a few years, the years of youth.
You know all about the "Bezness" phenomenon! How did you research the subject? Did you meet these young gigolos?
For more than a year, I shot a series of investigations and interviews on video. The film’s fiction is inspired by reality. The techniques, tricks and spiel of the gigolos are totally authentic. The thing with the letter, for instance. They can be a little difficult and their behaviour often verges on vulgarity. I didn’t want to punish them or condemn them but, rather, sublimate them to make them engaging. I wanted to show characters in extreme situations, like in a Greek tragedy. They attempt to see their destiny through to its logical conclusion. By defying this social degradation, they play a dangerous game. I deliberately turned away from the economic and commercial context to focus exclusively on what upsets the inner foundations of a man. In other words, everything that has a direct link to emotions, affection, feelings, the body and sex.
Tell us about your three characters. Roufa says, "I sell the stuff dreams are made of… I come from the Arabian Nights."
Roufa doesn’t have his place in the social structure. He only exists through his dreams. By evoking the Arabian Nights, the very cliché of the mystical east, Roufa has a direct link with the imaginary world and the fantasies of a westerner in relation to the Orient. Roufa is macho and chauvinistic. He sells his sexuality and virility but I wanted to show this in an artistic manner, in accord with our cultural heritage. I wanted him to be trapped by this dilemma at the end of the film. Confronted with reality, the hassles of daily life assail him and he is no longer the dark good-looking guy that people fantasize about, the Adonis that they dream of caressing, but the guy who needs to be fed and housed, whose dirty clothes have to be washed, etc.
Roufa dreams of emigrating.
He has no precise function in Tunisian society. He isn’t a worker or a clerk, he doesn’t work on a production line… He is an outsider, an artist and a dreamer because of his "work". In his mind, he is always abroad. He dreams of having someone look after him. He believes that he could have other ways of earning a living elsewhere. He wants to leave to escape a reality that he rejects or that he refuses to see. Yet, at the same time, he is hesitant. At the start of the film, he talks about "giving it up". He is torn between taking the step of leaving or bravely facing harsh reality, settling down and starting a family. He meets people who come to his country to find their dreams. Everyone dreams of something that they don’t have. Originally, I wanted to call the film Broken Dreams. The German client, who has been in Sousse for sixteen years says, "If you try to make your dreams come true, you break them." We are living in a period when most young Tunisian people dream of heading north. For them, the North represents a guarantee of long-term security. The police commissioner says, "You all want to leave and, as a result, all we have left are illegal aliens, prisoners and Aids sufferers…" I wanted these words to be uttered by a local to avoid any racist interpretation. That is the harsh reality of the situation.
Roufa observes a dual morality. Permissive in his deeds and extremely repressive concerning his family and his fiancée.
The easier a young man’s relations with women are, the more he fears for his own woman. The men won’t admit it but the more permissive they are, the more jealous they are. They’re scared. Scared that their women will be treated in the same way that they use foreign women.
What is Fred looking for? He says that his quest is motivated by the "intriguing invisible veil".
Fred wants to get to the heart of the labyrinth. Through this provocative character, I wanted to show that the Arab isn’t the only one to disturb the established order. My fascination for Pasolini led to this character. As in Theorema, Fred is disruptive and revealing. The film is written from the Oriental’s viewpoint since I chose to side with my own people. And the Westerner remains a mystery for us. Fred is a little like the madman in La Strada. He has no idea of the danger of what he does. He reveals the rift between Roufa and Khomsa and the absurdity of their dual relationship.
Fred is all the more disruptive because, in taking photos, he confronts a land where this taboo is linked to a religious interdiction.
Absolutely. I was particularly keen on developing a scene in which Fred is in danger of getting beaten up and of having his camera confiscated because the image is taboo and an interdiction. I’m not religious but everyone respects this principle of Islam: "If you practice a vice, do so in secret." These words by Mohammed, that aren’t in the Koran, are as good as a law. This principle is a perfect expression of the hypocrisy that Muslim morality is founded on.
Khomsa is the most troubled character since she is torn between tradition and the future. You show the condition of an emancipated young Muslim woman perfectly.
Khomsa is the most accomplished character, the one who travels the greatest distance in the film. She is jealous and collusive since she knows everything about Roufa’s deeds. And for this reason, she is able to use emotional blackmail with Roufa. But, from the first scene, she tells Roufa, "Find a job. You’re deluding yourself, you’re lying to yourself, you’re dragging my youngest brother down with you. And you keep getting thrown out by the old woman who was supposed to keep you in Europe…" She is lucid but she loves him! She is torn between fear and desire. She attempts to get rid of Roufa’s physical and interior presence by moving closer to Fred. She uses him. Khomsa is the only character who emerges from all this unharmed.
After having "atoned" for her fault in the trance scene ?
Yes, she emerges unharmed precisely because she has atoned for it. But I wanted the film to end with her walking alone along the beach, free of everything. Khomsa hasn’t sought refuge in tradition, she has simply distanced herself from male domination.
In "Bezness", you show the cultural, psychological and emotional destabilization experienced by this generation.
The reality is even worse… But I didn’t want to make a political or sociological film condemning that. There are much more serious subjects around at the moment. The distress that I show through the character of young Navette, for instance. He represents the future. I’ve preferred to force the audience to think by marking them on an emotional level.
Does a patriarchal society inevitably lead to contravention ?
Not only does it lead to it but also it contains a daily, concealed contravention at its core. In my previous film, L’homme de cendres, I showed a patriarchal society based on the aggression of the individual and the child in relation to the group. The individual permanently flouts the rules of this society in secret or in his fantasies. This is why relationships are much more tragic and complex than in modern Western society.
The leisure society causes this sex market in every tourist area, all around the world. The "Bezness" phenomenon isn’t confined to the Tunisian coast
Indeed, on most levels, the film could have been set in Greece, Turkey or Italy… I have tried to avoid the sociological and short-term aspects to focus on the "fable".
At the end of the film, the three characters have changed and each of them has to face a new destiny.
Roufa’s destiny is expressed through the kid, Navette. Roufa moves away from his "Bezness" work, he gives it up, but the circle continues with a new generation represented by Navette. At the end of the film, Navette sings a song that sublimates the "Bezness" gigolos. The same state of affairs continues on a more complex manner. Fred realizes that his only relationship with social reality has been through his camera, through a gaze that turns this society into media fodder. He has realized too late that he should have looked with his eyes, not through a lens. His change is sudden and rapid. Khomsa rids herself of Roufa by using the Westerner as a support. Her only salvation lies in freeing herself of man’s hold. This is the only salvation of Arab women. Khomsa has managed to free herself. Her name is symbolic: it’s the hand of Fatma. The final shot in the film when we see her walking along the beach expresses this conquered freedom. She is free in everything, even in her body.