- 12 minutes ago
The Hollywood Reporter’s Alex Ritman sat down with the filmmakers of 'Broken Keys' Jimmy Keyrouz & Gabriel Yaredin in a 'THR Presents' Q&A powered by Vision Media.
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00:04Hi, I'm Alex Rittman, and thank you for joining us for The Hollywood Reporter Presents exclusive
00:09Q&A with both Jimmy Carews, writer-director, and Gabriel Yered, composer for Broken Keys.
00:15So thanks, guys. Very, very nice to speak to you today. Congratulations on the film.
00:20Thank you, Alex. Thanks for having us.
00:21Hello.
00:23I think I'll start with the development of the film before we move on to the music,
00:27if you don't mind. So, Jimmy, I'd love to hear where the story came from. There's been several
00:32dramas touching on ISIS, but I found it really interesting for it to be covered from the point
00:38of view of a musician. Well, thank you. Well, it was 2014, and I was in New York. Back then,
00:46I was still a student at Columbia University, and I had to write, to make a short film.
00:53And back then, the war in Syria and Iraq was raging. And like everyone else, I was glued,
01:00you know, to watching the news and watching all these terrible things and surreal things that,
01:07you know, were happening over there. And what ISIS was doing was pretty shocking. I mean,
01:13it was worse than any fiction one could write. But when I heard that music was banned, I was shocked.
01:21I, again, I mean, it was unconceivable for me that something as beautiful and innocent as music
01:27could be banned. And I related a bit to the subject because I know I play piano. My mother insisted
01:34that
01:34we learn music since I was seven. And, you know, I started seeing all those, when I started researching,
01:41I saw all these pictures of various musicians and artists expressing themselves. So, a guy played piano,
01:49a guy played some form of Middle Eastern guitar. It's called an oud. Dancers, even some people preserved
01:57art at the cost of risking their own lives to do so. So, that's how it all started. And mainly,
02:05I loved the fact, you know, that a lot of people are trying to send a message of hope and
02:09a positive
02:09message and kind of like trying to reach out to the world and using also art and music, which is
02:16a
02:16universal language. And kind of like, that's where it all started. That's where back in 2014. Then I
02:22shot the feature, the short in Lebanon in 2015. Luckily, in 2016, it won the student Oscar and BAFTA
02:29and DGA. And then I wanted to forget about it and move on to something else. Because, you know,
02:35I've already explored the subject. Yeah. But everyone kept saying, like, you should really do a feature.
02:41And why don't you do the feature of that short? It was called Nocturne Black. And, you know,
02:48the world is so rich. The setup is so rich. And there were still so many things to explore. And
02:54then I started writing the feature in 2018. And we started production in 2019.
03:01Fantastic. So, what was the differences between the shorts? How far did you get into the story?
03:06Um, the difference? Well, the arc is pretty much the same. It's still about rebuilding a piano.
03:15It's still about someone really trying to rebuild this piano and, and, and in trying to hold on to,
03:22to his dreams and hope, you know, of like, getting out, getting out of the place he's in and, you
03:29know,
03:29becoming, uh, learning music professionally, and, and, and moving to Europe, potentially.
03:36Uh, but you know, in the, in the, in the, in the long version, uh, I think, just like we
03:43explored and
03:45stretched, uh, different areas of the story. We, we, we dive deeper into, into, you know,
03:51the world of the story, the community he's living in, uh, uh, the journey of rebuilding a piano,
03:56all of that. I mean, and the ending is a slightly, slightly different, but I don't want to spoil it.
04:01Sure, sure. Um, and, and for the, um, for the feature, where did you shoot? I mean, I'm assuming
04:07the, the destruction that you see on camera, I mean, that's not a set. You haven't built that.
04:12That was real life. That, that's not a set. And even if we, I mean, we couldn't even afford a
04:18set,
04:18you know, it's like CGI and, uh, I mean, uh, 3d, uh, like in Game of Thrones or, or sets
04:25were
04:25really out of budget, but which, which was a good thing for us because the only choice that was left
04:31for us is to shoot at least some of it on location. So we, uh, went to Iraq, uh, more
04:39particularly in
04:40Mosul and we literally shot at the last places, you know, uh, and, and areas where the Islamic state,
04:49uh, fought before the city was, was, was, uh, was, was saved. So, uh, so, uh, when we were there,
04:59you could still, you know, um, um, uh, smell, uh, um, that body is buried underneath rubble.
05:07And you could see like on the floor, some beards that were cut off from that, the fighters
05:12themselves cut off just because before they, they, they, they, they were caught, uh, or they
05:17were going to get caught just, you know, to, you know, um, mingle between civilians and to go unnoticed.
05:23So, um, it sounds dramatic, but it was actually a wonderful experience. I mean, I, I, it's funny,
05:30but on our way back at the airport, the crew was really having a, you know, it was, everyone
05:35was like so positive and, you know, they felt they, you know, went through this amazing experience,
05:41uh, to shoot over there. And I think it's brought so much authenticity to the story. And I'm very
05:45happy about that, even though it sounds crazy now that I'm talking to you about it.
05:50It does sound a little crazy. Yeah. Um, and yeah, moving to the music, I would love to hear
05:57how you attracted the attention of the great Gabriel Yarad and persuaded him to work on the score.
06:03Do you want me to tell the story or will you tell the story?
06:07Well, go ahead.
06:09So I'm very interested in young directors and, uh, Jimmy wrote to me an email sending me his short film
06:18and said, I would like you to have a look at this. And he sent me also his script. I,
06:24if I remember
06:25also his script. So I like to be, as in all my projects, when I'm collaborating with the director,
06:33I like to be involved very early in the process. And Jimmy probably knew that, or he was inspired.
06:41So he sent me his short film and I was amazed by, not only by the story itself, but also
06:49by his,
06:51his direction, the way, the way he shoots, the way he conceived, the way he conceptualized an idea
06:58into images. And then I read the script and I immediately liked it immediately. We said,
07:05okay, we're going to meet because it was very important that we meet up and talk together about
07:10the film. The good things about our collaboration is I started very early by proposing music,
07:18what we call diegetic music, music for the pianist who plays those pieces. So I remember I was very
07:25busy at the time, probably scoring for another film. And I spent time looking into all my library,
07:31my music piano music library to see what could be really the best music this young Karim could play in
07:38this awful surround, you know, and I proposed many pieces to, to Jimmy. And this is was probably our
07:48first contact. And it went so well, we decided to meet and to talk about the music. This project
07:56really speaks to me. Because as Jimmy puts it, he says, Can you believe that music is forbidden in
08:05some countries, because music is like, anti religions, anti religious. And to me, it's very important
08:16that firstly, the way I have scored this film was as if I was inhabited by, by a flame, you
08:25know,
08:25to stand up for music, not only just for the images for that, I was really into this film. And
08:32I,
08:34I was immersed in a way that finally, I would do my, my themes, my demos, send it to Jimmy,
08:43back and forth all the time. This is how we worked, because he was in Beirut. And one day he
08:48came to
08:48Paris, and we discussed together about the whole process. And we got there. And in this score, there is
08:57not necessarily Oriental music, because this is a, this is, I would say, a ecumenic, it's worldwide
09:05problem. It's not only Iraq, or Lebanon, or Syria. And I decided to do a score, which could really
09:17marry the spirit of this film. And the spirit is very high, the spirit of this film. And also,
09:24I had this idea, which is to take just a little, a little four bars of the Ninth Symphony by
09:31Beethoven,
09:32you know, the, even a la joie, the joy things. And to make it kind of Oriental music in some
09:40way,
09:41to say, well, here, we're coming from that, we're going there, but we are all brothers,
09:45sisters, we are all the same. And music, to me, had this very important role, to gather things
09:54together, and to say, we're not different. You cannot forbid, forbid music, because music is the
10:00essence of the world. It's the only, the only thing that really support us, that say something about us.
10:09So that was my collaboration. Fantastic. I mean, I was going to say, like, the story is,
10:15it's obviously steeped in, like, a great deal of sadness and despair, but I really felt the music
10:20maintained a sense of hope and optimism. Was that something that you were trying to maintain?
10:25Well, yes, we didn't want to be, you know, on the nose, and to, and to cry, and scream, and
10:31all that. I
10:32mean, the film is so eloquent about all these things, that the music has to really be
10:38very, I would say, pudique. There is a word in French which says pudique, and it's, you cannot
10:43translate it. I had this conversation with Anthony Minghella many years, and said there's no pudique.
10:49And talking about Anthony, Jimmy's reminded me a lot about Anthony, because he is very involved,
10:56not only in directing, but also in writing, in, in music, in all, you know, all the things of,
11:03which are, which a film is made of. And he reminds me a lot about Anthony. It's two completely different
11:11characters, but I've, I found myself very connected to him. And this is a dream for a composer and
11:18director to have a beautiful collaboration, and to be like two souls finding themselves and
11:25doing the best they can for the project.
11:27Yeah, that's a wonderful compliment.
11:31And your, your lead, your lead actor, I apologize, I don't have his names at hand, but does he,
11:37does he play the piano?
11:40Oh, well, does he play the piano? Actually, he doesn't.
11:45Yeah. But what we did, and I was a bit,
11:50you know, nervous about that, about it. So we, we hired a teacher that, you know, would,
11:58would, would teach him how to play the pieces. But the pieces we, we, Gabriel chose,
12:05and that we, I mean, we agreed on, especially the last one were incredibly complicated. I mean,
12:10the last one, it's, it's, it's Beethoven, and it's, it's incredibly complicated. So,
12:17I mean, no player piano, I mean, I've been playing since, you know, as a hobby since like more,
12:2420 years now, more, and I can't even, I can't dream of playing it. So it's really complicated.
12:29What we did is we, we hired someone who would teach him at least how to, you know,
12:35place the hand correctly on the keyboard. And, you know, and I remember Gabriel told me,
12:41let him have the right pacing. So we did that for, for, for, for some of the scenes,
12:47for some of the closeups, we, we casted someone who have a pianist who have similar hands,
12:53or as similar as the actor, as the actor's hands. And, and we, and we did the closeup this way.
13:00But for me, I mean, I was, I was nervous about the moment, you know, when I, when I,
13:05when Gabriel saw the rough cut, and I remember, and I asked him like, does it sound credible for
13:12you enough? And I said, yeah, yeah, I mean, I'm, I'm fine. You can tell he's playing.
13:16Yes, yes, yes. If you're, if you're fine with it,
13:20I imagine that the guy is not playing. I mean, he's because he has a very good position of his
13:26hands and all the rest is cheating, but they are cheaters, the directors, but I don't know how he did
13:30it, but it's so realistic that nobody could think of that. There was two people playing or two people,
13:38you know, the fingers of two, two different people. And the selection of the music is also so
13:44important. It speaks, you know, beyond the images, what it says, those great Chopin and Brahms and
13:51Beethoven and Schumann. They, they are here despite all the interdiction. I mean, people say you cannot
14:01do music, but Schumann was here, Chopin was here, Brahms was here and Beethoven was here. And
14:07I was going to say an insult, but I won't say it.
14:15You kind of raised it early, but the, that, the final song, you know, the Beethoven,
14:21what was the decision behind you in the, in the final all important scene? How did you
14:27come to select that?
14:28That piece?
14:29Well, this was the decision of Jimmy, who had this great idea to see the guy
14:33on the village place. And despite everything happening,
14:37he would play boldly. He would play this music till the end. And I thought that my score should
14:44never interrupt this. My score comes after, after Ludwig van has, has expressed everything,
14:52because this music is furious in some way. It is, and it's Marshall, but it's very proud,
14:58the sonata by Beethoven. And I say, that's the best end for the film. And when I discovered this,
15:05I was really, really happy, happy to see this. And there was no need for music. Music comes
15:12much later to finish the film.
15:15No, it works really well. And Gabriel, I know that you, you like to record your scores in London.
15:20Was it the same for, was it the same for this?
15:23Oh, yes. Alex, can you believe that this has been recorded on Zoom? I mean, not recorded on Zoom,
15:32but it was by Zoom. I mean, it was at Air Studios in Hampstead. I had all my principals there.
15:41It was a large orchestra because, I mean, we were 50 to 60 musicians.
15:48And this was the very first session they made after the lockdown. So everyone was so happy,
15:57you know, to go back to recording, to play music. And all of the musicians were really
16:02sitting far, one from each other. This has been fixed by the mixing, but it was uneasy for them,
16:10but they played wonderfully well. And I was on the other side in Paris, on the other side of the
16:15channel,
16:15in my room, and I could speak with them. And Air Studio had installed a system which allowed me
16:23to hear exactly what the engineer would hear in the booth. And it was a great session. It was like
16:29a celebration. You know, it happens with this film. Jimmy was in Beirut listening. The producer,
16:36Frederic, was in Paris listening. And I was conducting, I mean, directing the session, but I was not
16:42conducting. I had to hire a conductor. And the session were really just a, you know, like celebration.
16:48That's the real word. And the musicians were really happy. It happened to me to do another score
16:53after, but this was really the first one just after the lockdown.
16:59Oh, that's amazing. Does that kind of present any, you know, it sounds like it presents complications,
17:04you not being physically there, but were you able to, you know, did it flow just as much as it
17:09would have done?
17:11Yeah, but I like to be there. The musicians also wanted me to be there because, you know, it's,
17:15we are so much, it's so friendly a session. You know that. I mean, you, you see your first
17:21tomboes, your leader, and then you, your viola leader and the cello leader, and you hug
17:27when there is no pandemic and so many things and you go for a beer. But this didn't happen. But
17:33I think
17:34the music sounded really well. And thanks to the engineer, the mixing engineer also, the recording and
17:38mixing, because he has to redo the sound in a way, because they were so far one from each other,
17:45that apparently there was no cohesion, but there is a cohesion, because they play together.
17:50And, and, and Jimmy, this is obviously Lebanon's entry to the Academy Awards. And the past few years,
17:56I mean, you're an esteemed company from, from Lebanon. It's just been, it's phenomenally
18:02successful. How does it feel to be, to be now among them?
18:07Um, well, I'm, I'm, I'm very happy. I'm grateful also. Um, I mean, you were just spoke about how the
18:15music was scored. I mean, this film was shot in extraordinary circumstances. I mean, I, we spoke
18:21about Mosul, but then when we came back to Lebanon, the revolution had just started, you know, like two
18:27days prior to our, our, our return to Lebanon. So we stopped the shooting for three weeks. And then when
18:33we,
18:33we, and we really struggled to, you know, continue because everyone's schedule has changed. And when
18:38we did, um, there was an unprecedented financial, uh, crash. So basically, um,
18:47everyone's money was stuck in the banks and, you know, you still need liquidity to continue a film.
18:53So thanks to production and, and, and, and a lot of people's amazing efforts were able to, to, to,
19:00to, you know, uh, overcome this. And then COVID happened and was, was, and even, even the score
19:06was, you know, scored, you know, for Paris to London. Um, it's, I think, I mean, first, um,
19:14I'm, I'm, I'm grateful because we were able to finish the film despite, you know, all these
19:19extraordinary consensus. Um, I'm really, I mean, I want to thank everyone so, so much. Um, uh,
19:28the cast, the crew, uh, the production, uh, and I'm very happy for Lebanon because all the news
19:35that came out of Lebanon for the past two years were incredibly negative. Uh, there was the
19:42revolution, which is a positive thing, but it came out of, you know, a deep corruption and everything.
19:47And then, uh, the force of August happens. Um, and it was, you know, the, the third biggest explosion in
19:55the city, uh, after Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Um, so I'm happy, uh, that, you know, uh, there's
20:04something positive coming out from Lebanon. Uh, and I don't know, I'm, I'm grateful. I'm,
20:11I'm grateful, um, to be where we are and, and let's see what happens. I mean, uh, I hope that,
20:19you know, um, good things will happen. I'm sure they will. And, and, and, and finally,
20:25I think the film, you know, is obviously it's set during a very sad period, but it has that,
20:31that positivity to about the power of music, the importance of music. Have you had a chance to,
20:38you know, go back to these places where, you know, music was banned, you know, have,
20:42have they, have they managed to see the film in, um, in areas where ISIS, um, were controlled?
20:48Have they seen the film? I'd say, no, uh, the film is not out yet. So no one's almost seen
20:53the film.
20:54Uh, we do, uh, plan to, you know, send to various festivals. Uh, I also hope and, and, and wish
21:03the
21:03film will screen in, in Syria and Iraq and some festivals. I mean, we don't know where exactly yet,
21:09but that's definitely, you know, when you make a film, you want as, as many people as possible to see
21:15it, but you also want like those, uh, I mean, I'd love to, I'd love to those, if the people
21:21in,
21:22that went through this would watch it, I think it will, it would be an amazing thing because,
21:27you know, just like we mentioned earlier, um, this is a story of a man trapped between four walls.
21:33And you know, where you're, uh, where living is in that place, just about surviving. And that guy is
21:40basically saying living is more than survival. I mean, if you can't, you know, play music and
21:45dance and do and dress the way we want, then what, what are we fighting for? I think
21:51from, if I recall correctly, Winston Churchill during the, uh, after, uh, during the second
21:57world war, when they wanted to cut out the budget for the arts. And then he said, then what the
22:01hell
22:02would we be fighting for, uh, in favor of the war efforts? And then he refused that. So I think
22:07there's
22:07this idea that is very important. I think we, that we talked about is the importance of music,
22:12uh, and art, especially in that kind of, of places. Uh, because I think that's what differentiates
22:18us from, you know, animals. If we can't, you know, do the things we want, uh, and if we can't,
22:23you know, if, if we can't express ourselves, uh, then I would guess life is not worth fighting for.
22:30Um, well, well, that's, um, that's beautifully put. And I think, you know, that's a perfect way to,
22:36to end this, this conversation, but, but really nice speaking to you, both Jimmy and Gabriel.
22:40Can I add one? I think I didn't have a chance to say it, but, um, um, when I said
22:45that I was
22:46grateful about a bunch of things, I mean, for me, the first victory that this, this I'm, I'm one of
22:52the things I'm grateful the most for, or maybe it's, it's, uh, having Gabriel on board. I mean,
22:58I wanted to thank you because you know, that I consider that this was the first biggest victory for the
23:03film. Um, when a story centered so much about, uh, music, uh, having someone like him was,
23:12I mean, I was sure from the beginning that not only it was, you know, obviously we're going to
23:17have a great score, but this was going to propel the film and the whole, not just the story,
23:21but the whole film forward so much. Uh, because I think someone like Gabriel would understand this
23:28kind of, of story more than most because, uh, not only because of, you know, the, the musician
23:34and composer that he is, but because of also where he grew up. I mean, he did grow up, uh,
23:42at least in the first part of his life in that area of the world. So he would understand what
23:46it
23:46means, you know, to have restrictions on things and he would understand, you know, how to maybe add
23:52a little element that, you know, make it even more authentic to that, you know, place. Um,
23:57so thank you and, uh, thank you for agreeing to do this. Thank you for, for, for scoring for us.
24:03Uh,
24:03it was a, an amazing victory for the film. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much,
24:09Jimmy. And thank you, Gabriel. And thank you for joining us for the Hollywood Reporter Presents
24:12screening series. Thanks, Alex. Thank you so much. Thank you, Alex.
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