“Lift your eyes to the heavenly sky”

In your new film, you play Marie. Introduce us to this woman in a few words…

She lives in Tunis (Tunisia) and hosts young migrants in the house where the evangelical church of which she is pastor is located. Attentive to their needs, she tries to help them, in a country that is hostile to them.

What does this role reveal about you?

My need to express myself on the situation of African migrants. Eighty percent of them move within the continent and live most of the time in very difficult conditions. Only 20% migrate to Europe. Little is known about this.

The movie you’ve seen a hundred times?

The 400 shots, by François Truffaut, who gracefully evokes abused childhood and the possibility of finding freedom.

The person you are most grateful for?

Madame Ganot, my adoptive grandmother. She took care of me during my childhood, in Fresnes (Val-de-Marne), especially after the death of my dad when I was 8 years old. This dream granny, of great sweetness, also read The Pilgrim ! With her, I wanted to go to mass for the first time. Even though I didn’t convert to Christianity, she taught me to connect to my spiritual dimension.

What cause would you march for?

The question of lack of water in the Sahel! I made a documentary on this subject: Walk on water in 2021.

An initiative that touches you?

I created the Mohamed Maïga association, in memory of my father, a Malian journalist who was murdered at the age of 33 in 1984. With Reporters Without Borders, we have just created the prize for African investigative journalism bearing his name.

A spiritual place where you like to take refuge?

Churches, temples, mosques… In places of worship, I perceive the traces of all the people who have come to share their joys, their sorrows and their prayers. This moves me.

A quality that you would be proud to pass on to your children?

The spirit of tolerance. Raised by an atheist uncle and aunt, I went to catechism thanks to Ms. Ganot and to Koranic school when I was with my grandmother in Mali. These people had in common humanism and respect for the faith – or lack of faith – of their neighbors.

Which beauty will save the world?

That of the sky! In the heart of Paris or elsewhere, when my gaze is directed towards the light of the sky, I feel that I am rising.