EVENT REVIEW: YASMINA KHADRA
Yasmina Khadra joined us for a Q&A session in May, following the screeing of the film The Attack or L'attentat. The film is adapted from the author's worldwide bestseller of the same name.
Amin Jaafari is an Israeli Palestinian surgeon, fully assimilated into Tel Aviv society. But his perfect life is turned upside down when a suicide bombing, involving his own wife, occurs in a restaurant and leaves nineteen dead.
Some of our favourite quotations from the event include:
"A travers tous mes livres, ce que j’essaie de dire aux gens c’est : 'vivez votre vie !'" - With all of my books, what I try to say to people is 'live your life!'
“si tu as foi en ce que tu fais, aucun ouragan ne peut te détruire” - If you have faith in what you do, no storm can destroy you.
"J’ai écrit ce livre par amour pour l’humain. Je n’ai jamais cédé à la tentation de la polémique. Parce que la polémique n’est que du bruit alors que le talent est de la musique. Et moi je veux être musicien" - I wrote this book with love for human beings. I have never given in to controversey. Because controversey is only noise whereas talent is music.
"Au cinéma, tout le monde est mise sur la scène sauf le scénariste : je me sens protégé, mon statut de militaire me fait passer pour un véritable espion. Littéraires qui se méfient de lui parce qu’il est un militaire, et militaires parce qu’il est écrivain. Il suffit d’écouter et d’essayer de voir le monde à travers leurs yeux." - In the cinema everybody is put on stage except the script writer: I feel protected, my status as a soldier allows me to pass for a real spy. Literary types mistrust him because he's a soldier and soldiers because he's a writer. It's enough just to listen to and try to see the world through their eyes.
You can find out more information about the comic book version of The Attack here and more about the original novel here.
The trailer of the film is also online here.