"The first two sequences of Andalucia were the first two building blocks for the film," explains the director. "I knew the character could be very conspicuous, childish, enthusiastic on the one hand, and on the other be capable of violence. He is not between one and the other; he is one and the other. Completely. So that immediately begs the question how this character is going to solve this, how is he going to survive? How is going to find a way out of that?"

The unusual narration, elliptical and with interpolated dreams and stream-of-consciousness-like stretches, imposed itself early on. Says Gomis: "After I had established the first two sequences, it quickly became clear that I had to stay all the time with Yacine, but that I did not need him to illustrate a classical narrative. Who he is cannot be found in the big moments of his life, but in those in between. He can be found in the trip between one moment and the next. So I assembled the film as if it were music, trying to listen and see what was in these in-between moments. Sometimes, on the set, I just knew I had what I needed, but at other times I knew only that I could not use it at all. I’m not a writer but a filmmaker, so I couldn’t explain to you in words how that works exactly, but you just have to feel it. It is difficult to explain what you feel exactly when you are listening to music or watching a film, but that’s what’s so wonderful about them: these feelings can only be expressed with the tools of these disciplines".

In one wryly comic scene, Yacine and his Senegalese friends work as extras on a big-budget film about slavery, a product of what they refer to as "this fucking French cinema". But this does not mean that Gomis thinks he operates outside of French cinema. "There is definitely a relationship between my film and French cinema in general," the director explained, "just by the simple fact that the characters are in France. But it is true that the characters think that they do not belong to what is often shown, so it is a relationship based on exclusion. What French films and TV show is something that the characters do not recognise; they do not see themselves there, which is a form of violence, of violation in a way. They don’t ask for much, they just want to be represented too".

The theme is actually at the heart of the film, because, as Gomis explains: "Yacine has actually always fought against that image of himself, so it is the central battle of the film in a way. In that sense, the film belongs to French cinema for sure".

On the reactions to his film, Gomis says: "You can either become extremely happy by just talking to those who loved it, or extremely depressed by just listening to those who hated it. I have sampled both and find it very interesting how two people sitting next to each other in the cinema can come out with such different experiences. I know there is a market for films like mine, a tribe that seems to congregate especially at film festivals, but it is difficult to know how many people are really interested in a film like Andalucia. Obviously, I’d like to continue making films, so let’s hope that the tribe is big enough".

This interview was originally conducted in French and has been translated by the author.