Nidhal Chatta is distinguished by the demands he makes, as much, on the actors as part of the set, as by his concern for a sober aesthetic, forbidding all forms of “padding” or complacency with no room for “overplaying” in any sense.
Emotion, as much as possible, must come from within, so touching us more profoundly.
Without him admitting it, or maybe it’s unconscious, his standards are those of the great schools of cinema for which emotion is not simply display, touting, or gesticulation.
That’s why he has been my friend, my accomplice, for nearly forty years. Moreover, he is a straight man.
Picture of Férid Memmich by Damien Grenon, Paris 2018
