Les Promises is an artistic collaboration bringing together six teenage girls living in Marseille’s 15th and 16th arrondissements, alongside artists, social workers and anthropologists. The project began in 2019. The team supports the young women in writing a play in which they express themselves about their lives through their imagination and their personal histories. The play reflects the themes they wished to explore, their perspective on their environment, and the myths they construct to exist, but also those they are subjected to. In 2021, the artistic project continues with the creation of a documentary film that captures the creative work carried out over two years. The film Les Promises is a collaborative effort and conceived as a window into the lives of these teenage girls. The film is constructed from interviews, dance sequences and videos filmed by the girls using their smartphones. It brings together a collection of people, places and objects made unique by the emotions and memories attached to them.
by Marion Zurbach / Unplush
Cast
Artistic direction, choreography Marion Zurbach
Director Giulia Angrisani
Actors, co-authors Amira Njahi, Rachel Houmadi, Fatima Khadissova, Ilhem Mechentel, Minane Ould Ibbat, Djenna Sekarna
Artistic accompaniment Arthur Eskenazi
Camera, assistant director, editor Mattia Petullà
Composition, sound engineer Giorgio Gristina
Costumes Silvia Romanelli
Lighting Agathe Nevière
Artistic assistant Vittorio Bertolli
Drone pilot Florian Chavanon
Camera Juan Mathias Chachay
Production Martina Langmann & Maxine Devaud / Maxinthewood Productions
Educators Mohammed Kassouri, Pascale Borghi
Co-production Dampfzentrale Berne
Partner Addap 13, S.A.L.C
Locations Centre Social Del Rio, Artagon Marseille, Foresta, Théâtre de L’oeuvre, Cité Des Arts De La Rue
Support Kultur Stadt Bern, SWISSLOS / Kultur Kanton Bern, PRAIRIE
Migros-Kulturprozent, Stanley Thomas Johnson Stiftung, Ernst Göhner Stiftung, Burgergemeinde Bern, Schweizerische Interpretenstiftung SIS, HMSL, Ruth und Arthur Scherbarth Stiftung, Stiftung Anne-Marie
Schindler, Addap 13, S.A.L.C
Acknowledgements The families, Fabrizio Terranova, @mars_massala, Eva Baudry, Marie-Agnès Fontaine