Sean Gullette isn’t exactly subtle. In a place like Morocco, the star of Darren Aronofsky’s Pi wears a signature Panama hat and jaunty stride like an American; after months reveling in the five-star hotels and open bars of the international festival circuit, he walks the tapis rouge like a frat boy on game day. The expat is having a baller time, and it's infectious. Watching Gullette herd a small pack of tourist friends deep into a medina, this writer was reminded of Moses leading his people into the promised land—or rather, to some damn good textiles.
Of course, any larger-than-life writer/actor/filmmaker loves a challenge. “It would be so easy for Moroccans to call bullshit on this film, and be like, 'Who is this Gringo?'” he says, sitting down with Opening Ceremony at the Marrakech International Film Festival to discuss his feature-length directorial debut, Traitors, a slow-simmering thriller about the teenage leader of an all-girl punk band who is coerced into becoming a drug mule for the sake of... her art. Gullette has spent the past eight years toggling between New York and Tangier, where the film is set. Though the actors speak in native Arabic, there’s something distinctly Americana about the heroine (played by the Moroccan starlet, Chaimae Ben Acha). She skulks in torn, black skinnies and listens to the Clash, managing to subvert “authority” through a daring, pell-mell foil that is as boldly idealistic as the director himself.
As one does in the ochre city, I recently had a tête-à-tête with the 45-year-old filmmaker over coupes de champagne, discussing everything from love at first sight, Tangier's youth counterculture, and lessons culled from his BFF Aronofsky.
Jeanine Celeste Pang: You’re this born-and-bred Bostonian, with this very debonair, American affectation to you. How does one wind up living in Tangier?
Sean Gullette: I went to Tangier for love. My wife, Yto Barrada, is a badass Moroccan artist. We met in New York and I fell immediately in love, and she was going home a lot, where she had also discovered this cinema rift in the main circle in Tangier. As you probably know, satellite dishes and DVD players killed cinemas across Africa in the 80s and 90s. The expression, “Let’s go to dinner and a movie” was struck from the language. Yto, being a crazy artist, said, “Let me start an artist-run nonprofit and get people like Pierre Bergé to help with the financing.” So, in 2006, the Cinémathèque de Tanger was officially launched. And through the Cinémathèque, the doors of the city opened up to me and I started to know all the young people. It was really the only café in the city that attracted the cool kids in town—kids who were musicians, artists, and singers.
How would you describe the energy in Tangier? Can you compare it to any other city in the world?
You can’t really compare Tangier to anything; it has a very unique quality to it. Truman Capote said, before you go to Tangier, you should do three things: [“Be inoculated for typhoid, withdraw your savings from the bank, say goodbye to your friends—heaven knows you may never see them again…Tangier is a basin that holds you.”] That’s also why [William] Burroughs came––because it was so lawless and ungovernable.
And in that anarchy, you saw the potential for a great movie. What was it about the youth, in particular, that held your interest?
I was pissed off at those kids! This was in 2010. T
Of course, any larger-than-life writer/actor/filmmaker loves a challenge. “It would be so easy for Moroccans to call bullshit on this film, and be like, 'Who is this Gringo?'” he says, sitting down with Opening Ceremony at the Marrakech International Film Festival to discuss his feature-length directorial debut, Traitors, a slow-simmering thriller about the teenage leader of an all-girl punk band who is coerced into becoming a drug mule for the sake of... her art. Gullette has spent the past eight years toggling between New York and Tangier, where the film is set. Though the actors speak in native Arabic, there’s something distinctly Americana about the heroine (played by the Moroccan starlet, Chaimae Ben Acha). She skulks in torn, black skinnies and listens to the Clash, managing to subvert “authority” through a daring, pell-mell foil that is as boldly idealistic as the director himself.
As one does in the ochre city, I recently had a tête-à-tête with the 45-year-old filmmaker over coupes de champagne, discussing everything from love at first sight, Tangier's youth counterculture, and lessons culled from his BFF Aronofsky.
Jeanine Celeste Pang: You’re this born-and-bred Bostonian, with this very debonair, American affectation to you. How does one wind up living in Tangier?
Sean Gullette: I went to Tangier for love. My wife, Yto Barrada, is a badass Moroccan artist. We met in New York and I fell immediately in love, and she was going home a lot, where she had also discovered this cinema rift in the main circle in Tangier. As you probably know, satellite dishes and DVD players killed cinemas across Africa in the 80s and 90s. The expression, “Let’s go to dinner and a movie” was struck from the language. Yto, being a crazy artist, said, “Let me start an artist-run nonprofit and get people like Pierre Bergé to help with the financing.” So, in 2006, the Cinémathèque de Tanger was officially launched. And through the Cinémathèque, the doors of the city opened up to me and I started to know all the young people. It was really the only café in the city that attracted the cool kids in town—kids who were musicians, artists, and singers.
How would you describe the energy in Tangier? Can you compare it to any other city in the world?
You can’t really compare Tangier to anything; it has a very unique quality to it. Truman Capote said, before you go to Tangier, you should do three things: [“Be inoculated for typhoid, withdraw your savings from the bank, say goodbye to your friends—heaven knows you may never see them again…Tangier is a basin that holds you.”] That’s also why [William] Burroughs came––because it was so lawless and ungovernable.
And in that anarchy, you saw the potential for a great movie. What was it about the youth, in particular, that held your interest?
I was pissed off at those kids! This was in 2010. T