What interested you to make a short for Paris, je t’aime?
I have a fascination with the great industrial-revolution cities of the world — Paris, New York, London, Berlin. They are constantly being reshaped by the immigrants who come with nothing and make a new life for themselves. Because, as a South African, I come from a country that is very layered in issues of identity and cultures clashing, this is the terrain I am interested in. I was also interested in how to tell a love story that was so specific that it could not happen in any other part of Paris. What struck you about the arrondissement you were given? It is not the beautiful part of Paris, it is not the Paris where tourists go, but it is exactly the kind of place that you first arrive in as an immigrant. The 19th [arrondissement] has a rich history in Paris: Edith Piaf, the first cinemas in Paris, and it is where the grand architectural visions of the ’70s also happened. This all influenced me in the kind of story that I came up with. Visually it is bleak — I probably chose one of
