Mafrouza - Oh la nuit! 2007. France. Directed by Emmanuelle Demoris. DCP. In Arabic; English subtitles. 140 min.
For two years in the early 2000s, Emmanuelle Demoris lived among the residents of Mafrouza—a shantytown built upon the ruins of Alexandria’s Greco-Roman necropolis that was destroyed in 2007 to make way for an industrial port—preserving the place in images over an epic five-film cycle. Claire Atherton edited the first installment, which introduces viewers to some of Mafrouza’s 10,000 inhabitants and their great inventiveness and vitality despite meager means. Legendary French screenwriter Jean Gruault, who helped realize the project (his first producer credit at age 84), said of the films, “Exposed and provoked, loved or rejected, challenged or seduced, the camera breaks the wall between us and the screen to make us really share the meeting with the people of Mafrouza. And this opening deconstructs the classical illusion of cinema (even documentary) to create a new kind of representation based on exchange and reciprocity.”