elles dansent La Nuit by Isabelle Lavigne, Stéphane Thibault

Canada, Egypt (2010) - Directors’ Fortnight

Filming is all about power. A choice is made between those who can be given access to representation, and those who can’t. La nuit, elles dansent presents a world almost deprived of men: they are shadows popping out of other shadows and used as mere foils. In the erotic dancing industry as depicted here, they are just the hands that provide the money and the gaze that triggers the show. Here the client is no more omnipotent; he is indebted to the dancers for their performance. True to the system of donation established by Marcel Mauss, Isabelle Lavigne and Stéphane Thibault reverse the usual balance of power and endow women with superiority.

Reda is at the centre of this swing. She is a widow raising her seven children in Cairo. Through her fighting spirit, she has made a business of her family by employing her daughters as night dancers, and training them from a young age. The family house is a theatre divided into dressing rooms whose empress is the Godmother/madam. At night the girls turn into fairies, but fairies that take taxis to work, and get arrested for being underage.

The dancers’ bodies are exposed in their whole sensuality. But is there any power in controlling the men’s gaze? Can the reification of bodies be really reversed into strength? The men’s lust is a constant cause for arguments, and Reda is continuously led to defend her girls like a counsel in court. But through speech, she also becomes the judge who returns the verdict. In negotiation and speech really lies the power of women; Reda exemplifies it as she takes the narration of the documentary hostage and supplants the directors.

by Viviane Saglier (France)