The writer of the spy thriller “Black Box” Simon Moutaïrou, renowned for his work, did not require much encouragement to team up with industry heavyweights such as producer Chi-Fou-Mi of “November” and “All Your Faces” fame, as well as Studiocanal, for his directorial debut No Chains, No Masters.
As of now in post-production, “No Chains, No Masters” draws inspiration from the historical accounts of the self-liberated slaves, known as Maroons, who broke free from French settlements.
“No Chains, No Masters” features an epic story set in 1759 in the French colony of Mauritius Island where the father Massamba (Ibrahima Mbaye Thié) and his teenage daughter, a fierce Mati (Anna Thiandoum), embark on an odyssey to escape from a colonial plantation. The father-daughter duo must survive a manhunt throughout the jungle as they fight to free themselves from captivity.
The tale follows Mati who, suffering her fate, escapes from the plantation in the hope of finding a real free life in a secluded area of the island where a group of runaways is rumored to exist. When Benoît Magimel, the planter, engages the rather brutal slave capturer Madame de la Victoire (Camille Cottin) and her sons, Massamba has no option but to remove his shackles and retrieve her. A maniacal chase across the island’s jungle between a father, daughter, and the colonial order ensues. The two emerge free from subordinance.
In recent history, it is the first major French narrative feature film focusing on slavery in French colonies. The film is produced by former Studiocanal senior executive Nicolas Dumont, and Hugo Selignac at Chi-Fou-Mi, a Mediawan label nominated for nine Cesar Awards, along with France Explorations. The film’s financing comes from Studiocanal (The Animal Kingdom) which also holds the internation rights to the film, sold. France Televisions, a public broadcaster, has pre-acquired the film and Studiocanal will host a promo reel during the European Film Market.
Moutaïrou in a conversation with Variety prior to EFM, mentions that “No Chains, No Masters” is a personal endeavor that started when he was still a child in Benin. A former French colony in west Africa, Benin used to be called the Kingdom of Dahomey.
“One very strong memory is of this gigantic door: a red monolith, the “Gate of No Return” facing the ocean. When I was a child, I remember playing on the beach with my brother,” Moutaïrou says. “I knew it was memorial to the enslaved Africans who were deported, so I kept imagining how so many men, women, children and entire families had been deported and swallowed by the sea.”
Moutaïrou states, “It is something my father, family and I talked a lot. So I knew that my very first movie would be about this topic because slavery is a huge part of Benin’s history.”
The filming for the movie was set in Mauritius Island in the Indian Ocean, and it was nothing short of incredible because of the epic violent tropical storm that occurred during filming. Moutaïrou employed many non-professional actors who spoke any Wolof, the native language of many West Africans, while working hand in hand with historians. Bloc picked Mati from a pool of five hundred women auditioning in Dakar, which makes her the first ‘actress’ in the performing arts. Mbaye, on the other hand, is a well-known Senegalese actor, who performed for Mati Diop in Cannes prize-winning “Atlantics”.
It was important to get as close to the truth as I can because cinema should fill the gaps of historical representations, “I really wish I had learned more about slavery in my earlier years,” Moutaïrou explains, in the interview. “For me, I had no icons to emulate and this put a strain on my imagination. That is what makes movies important they capture myths and legends.” Moutaïrou explains how there were one or two films on slavery made by Guy des Deslauriers, Med Hondo and Euzhan Palcy in 1970 to 1980 in France, then there was nothing after that.
Dumont, like Moutaïrou, notes the gap on France’s colonial history in popular culture. “Americans have been dealing with slavery for the past 20 to 30 years, but France has not truly opened this box of colonialism. To me, it’s a symptom of a larger problem,” he notes.
“Let’s hope that with the help of this film, we can spark the awareness and educate the youth about this painful period of history for France,” Dumont states. France did abolish slavery during the Revolution in 1794.
Moutaïrou highlights there are a lot of nuances between the slavery in the American context versus West Africa. “In French colonies, the overseers were Black. There weren’t white men like there were in the cotton plantations in the United States. It’s true we talk about ‘Twelve Years a Slave’ and ‘Django,’ but our films tell a different world one that is authentically French, he said, expressing hope that “No Chains, No Masters” would help connect audiences with these French films from the ‘70s and ‘80s.
The helmer mentions he was also interested in telling the story of the Maroons, people who freed themselves and established their own settlements.
It’s revealing an economic or gendered system of domination and saying ‘no’ that’s why it is timely, says Moutaïrou. It’s about standing tall at that time and today.
For ‘No Chains, No Masters’ Dumont continues, there is also a ‘feminist dimension’ because it is ‘driven by many heroic female characters from Mati to her mother who dies in the ship because she refuses to become a slave.
The film features the score by Amine Bouhafa who composed for the Oscar nominated film ‘Timbuktu’ and it is enhanced by the cinematography of Antoine Sanier (‘Totems’). Along with these, the key crew also features the production designer David Bersanetti (Get In) and costume designer Pierre-Jean Larroque who was part of Lost Illusions.
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