From her Donoma Guerilla Tour bus, the effervescent Emilia Derou-Bernal answers some questions about Djinn Carrénard’s first feature film: Donoma.
Synopsis:
A teacher forms an ambiguous relationship with a student, an agnostic teenager is “called” by God, and a photographer gives herself to a stranger. Do we choose to love? Do we choose to be loved?
1/ The Spanish teacher you play in Donoma goes very far in her relations with the students. How did you and the director imagine the role?
The director and I had many conversations about this character, and through these conversations, I gleaned an understanding of her family background, her relations with others, her personal history. He arranged for me to meet a young teacher at a vocational high school, and I saw the difficulties she faced and the limits of her authority. Then the director and I discussed the student-teacher scenes, and I had to delve into it from a psychoanalytic perspective to really understand the types of trauma Analia had had to endure in order to react as she did. Then I got a notebook and filled it with notes about the character’s life, year after year – I always need to be able to answer all sorts of questions in order to really feel the character. I described every episode of her life, her first sexual encounter, her favorite food, what makes her laugh, her relationship with her father…Then I chose which parts of myself I could use for the role, and which to discard. In this collaboration with Djinn Carrénard, most of the work had already been done – he had already fleshed out the character, and I only had to add what seemed important to me. I did not have to start from scratch. Finally, in order to detach ourselves from the emotional aspects of the scenes, we labeled the teacher and student A and B, and each of their meetings, every scene, was reduced to the basics of a power gain or loss; this simplification of the sequences made them easier to tackle. By the time we began filming, it was pure jubilation and fun!
2/ How would you describe your Donoma experience?
The Donoma experience is a modern fairy tale, where the princess gets her hands dirty! Making the film was great fun, and everything went very fast during shooting. Releasing the film two years later was a tour de force, a real obstacle course. This adventure is a good way of showing that anything is possible, with a lot of work and a fierce desire to do things according to our own rules. There is no manual of creation, one must have the rigor necessary to remain oneself in a society that dislikes ambiguity and wants to put everyone in a box. Donoma was our manual, and we had to write each line in blood. I’m proud to have participated in this moving project, where I learned my profession. For me, Donoma is also the birth of a great director, and even more so, an admirable man. Djinn Carrénard is a visionary who found the means to realize his ambitions while keeping his incredible humanity. I am honored to have met Djinn the great director, as well as the individual and friend he has now become.
(c) Clip from the show “Cinema Daily” TPS/BlackDynamiteProd.
3/ Tell us about the reactions of the audience, from the Grand Rex in Paris (2700 viewers) to your road-trip, the “Donoma Guerilla Tour”…
The Grand REX audience was a real victory for us. Djinn fought so hard to keep the reins of our project. We spent three weeks handing out flyers in front of every movie theater in Paris, explaining what we were trying to do with the film to each viewer personally and telling them why it was so important for us to have a full audience. After three weeks, we all lost our voice! The funniest thing that happened was one man telling me: “They’re really good at marketing. The people they chose to hand out flyers all look like the actors.” But when I came into the theater and saw that the last row was filling up, I was overwhelmed with such an explosive emotion! I felt as though we had brought in each viewer by the hand! People were touched by what we were trying to do, and through their presence and support, Donoma became their film, too, and the Grand REX – their victory, as well.
Then our bus stopped in front of the Rex. I hadn’t wanted to see it before that evening, when I realized that the dreams that had nourished us for the past two years were becoming a reality, materializing in a bus with 12 bunks! It was on, we would be able to conclude our struggle with a film tour of France. The director had always wanted to be free to produce his film and distribute it as he saw fit. The bus was the climax of two years of wrestling with the establishment. We haven’t necessarily won the match, but this round definitely went to us!
Sébastien - unifrance.org 
