Fanspot
French Village
“It’s war, Dad. War!”
Thierno (Alassane Diop)
A father searches for his son
Father & Soldier is the story of a father (Omar Sy) trying to join his son (Alassane Diong) on the war front in 1917. The story of a father’s protection of his son, who came to take him home to their village in Senegal.
These two men are Senegalese, like nearly 200,000 of them who came to the trenches of northern France to fight for “their country”. As a colonial power, France was expanding throughout the African continent. Men are therefore enlisted, sometimes by force, to swell the ranks of soldiers at the front. The term “Senegalese riflemen” became generic and included not only soldiers from that country but also those from West African regions such as Morocco.
Mawoundou in Senegal, two strong sequences
For this feature film, Mathieu Vadepied and his teams set up in Neufmaison, France but also in Mawoundou, Senegal. Father & Soldier is produced by Gaumont but also by Korokoro, a Senegalese company.
In Mawoundou, on the border with Mauritania, the director films the sequences of Thierno’s capture to go and fight as well as Bakary’s voluntary commitment. The father and the son, when they dialogue, speak to each other in the Fulani language.
A touching welcome
Previewed at the Cannes Film Festival, Father & Soldier shocked audiences and critics alike. During the cultural event, Mathieu Vadepied underlines the touching welcome of the villagers of Mawoundou: “The welcome I received from the villagers of Mawoundou, the village where we filmed in Senegal in the Fouta Toro, near the Mauritanian border, touched me enormously. I explained at length my approach and the meaning of this film to the elders. As in Neufmaison, we worked with a maximum of people from the village and the surrounding area. I was lucky enough to work with a highly motivated and committed Senegalese team. There was also a spiritual dimension, a kind of fervor about the subject: I can imagine for them, seeing a white man come to shoot a film in the Fulani language, which tells of colonial violence… There was really something very beautiful, a moment of sharing that went beyond the film.”
Neufmaison in France, a village wounded by the war
Mathieu Vadepied, artistic director on the films Read My Lips by Jacques Audiard and C’est la vie! by Olivier Nakache and Eric Tolédano, chose Neufmaison to shoot the scenes in the French village.
Between August 23 and October 13, 2021, the film crews will settle in the Grand Est region. The Ardennes are thus selected because of their hilly relief. Neufmaison and its surroundings are used as a backdrop for the sequences in the trenches.
Transforming Neufmaison into a 1917 village
For the purposes of the film, Neufmaison is transformed. Recent temporal markers, such as utility poles or concrete, are obscured. As for the tarred village square, it will be given a facelift thanks to the use of clay. A false cemetery is also adjacent to the church.
Some houses that are a little too modern have their facades covered with wood panels, while the older ones are aged. Further on, the technical teams added a citadel and a trench to Neufmaison.
A memorable shoot
Concerning the Ardennes village, the filmmaker Mathieu Vadepied confided at the Cannes Film Festival: “The whole village was transformed into a film set, and we had the impression that we were really living in that era. The mixture of the inhabitants who welcomed us and participated for some in the filming, of these riflemen, of the actors and the technical team from Paris, made us live great emotions. I remember a memorable party organized by Omar Sy, where all these mixed populations, who would never cross paths in life, danced together under the canteen tent in the village of Neufmaison.”
The village of Neufmaison is home to only 72 people.
Neufmaison
Neufmaison is a rural commune in the French department of Ardennes.
With its 72 inhabitants, Neufmaison is a very small village in the Grand-Est region.
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