Why did you choose to set Péronnelle back in the colonial era?
I had read a lot of colonial novels. The colonialists formed a very specific population. They were far from Metropolitan France and often exaggerated their personality, their identity, and their authenticity. They exacerbated it. They invented their own nobility, a distinction they wouldn’t have had back in France. Exactly. This is clear from the Governor’s wife character. But I hope that spectators will forge their own opinion, that they will decide whether this character does in fact have a certain noblesse that goes astray in Africa. For, it has to be said that it was extremely hard for most of the colonialists and those living in central Africa in particular. The forest world is particularly hostile, with its malaria, sleeping sickness, leprosy, the sun, the rains. It’s a very difficult climate that takes its psychological toll. A lot of colonialists often drank themselves into the ground. The climate also plays on and exacerbates the libido, which fuelled their obsessive amorous a
