Manta (2009)

A movie directed by Valérie Urréa

How to film that which is hidden? Filmmaker Valérie Urréa confronted this magnificent and formidable challenge in directing a film based on Manta. This solo choreographed by Eric Lamoureux and Héla Fattoumi and performed on stage by Héla has met with considerable success on tour. It is exceptionally political. The artist shares her experience of wearing the niqab, the Muslim full veil.

The film claims its role as a subjective interpretation of the piece, fruit of an in-depth encounter between the dance artists and an artist of the image, film director Valérie Urréa, who is deeply involved in questioning the representation of the body in an Arab world in movement.

The virtuosity of her camera work is to explore the depths. Or in contrast, caress the nearness of intimacy. This close-up work often focuses on capturing patiently, and as closely as possible, the dancer’s regard – that rare facet of her person still accessible.

In these moments the viewer no longer knows if they see the world through the eyes of the director or the eyes of the stage performer. Subjectively, the film transgresses the coercive power of concealment which the veil seeks to impose on the woman-object. And not without reminding us that this cloth, by dint of pretending to conceal, reveals an excess of obsession for that which could reveal itself. Valérie Urréa’s film succeeds in revealing it all, beyond the veil.

Gérard Mayen journalist, writer and dance criticism