Less information often leads to more interpretation.
Kindness and freedom are not "has been" values in films and in life in general. And that we can still be young and free even if we are 70.
"Parisienne" is about how you forge a life in a new place when you are 18. And it's about a Lebanese girl who discovers Paris and the French in the 90s, and through these encounters, discovers herself.
I wanted the camera to actually observe the people who come from the outside to live inside a country, instead of fantasizing about them. Also, I wanted to say the sum of who we become is thanks to the people we meet. I wanted to make a positive film.
Strangely, producing "Parisienne" was very long and difficult because the people who mainly finance films didn't understand the idea of a young foreign girl having a good time in Paris. They wanted to see her suffering and poor, and definitely not falling in love with three French men!
Make films. And don't listen to anybody, except those who tell you "yes" and who are ready to help you.
I'm a Lebanese woman who directs films. That's not it at all. I am not really a woman nor am I really an Arab. Because I am not an apologist for women, nor of sentimental "world" films.
Never forget why you're really doing what you're doing.
Here's an uplifting story. Congratulations to the Little League team from Huntington Beach, California. Yeah, they beat Japan to win the Little League World Series. That's pretty good. See, that proves that when math and science aren't involved, our kids can beat anybody.
Old age, calm, expanded, broad with the haughty breadth of the universe, old age flowing free with the delicious near-by freedom of death.
Speak with contempt of none, from slave to king, The meanest Bee hath, and will use, a sting.