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example, Kids by larry clarke or Thirteen [by catherine hardwicke].
adolescents will see the movie differently from people in their thirties,
who have more experience and will see the same story from a different
angle.’
ROUgH DIAMOND
casting the lead role of deborah was a crucial step. ‘From the
beginning i wanted this to be a very authentic film, so i was looking
for a 15 or 16 year-old girl,’ herbots says. ‘we put some ads out and
we saw many, many girls, but there was always something missing,
or they were too young or too old. i was almost desperate, because
shooting was coming closer. we’d found someone who was pretty
much ok, but i wasn’t sure. and then i saw ella working in this short.
Bo
she was a bit like a rough diamond. you could see the potential was
there.’
ella was - and still is - at drama school. ‘My first idea was to perform
on stage,’ she recalls, ‘but then there was this chance to audition for
a short film, so i said: why not?’ Bafia was about a european man
who goes to a hospital in west africa demanding treatment for his
daughter, who has hurt her foot. as a result of his insistence that the
girl be seen, the african mother of a new-born child dies.
herbots was supervising the student director of the film, at rits film
school in brussels. ella’s role as the daughter was only small, but it
was enough to convince him. ‘i was looking for someone who was
really on the edge between being a girl and being a woman,’ he recalls.
‘and at that moment ella was there.’
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