You accepted to watch the fifteen documentaries of the official competition and also to preside over the jury that will give an award to the top three. For what reasons?

For a good and a bad one. First I have a strong admiration for people who make documentaries because it is really difficult to find the right distance with the interviewees. When I made Cher pays de mon enfance, about immigration, I was always afraid of  being intrusive or domineering, maybe out of cowardice or prudishness. The camera must be at a proper distance and people's voices must be heard. The other reason for accepting to be president of the jury is that I am finishing my film. I'm engrossed in my work, so I really enjoy watching something else, especially as these stories remain unknown.

These stories lead men into re-thinking make people rethink their relationship with the environment. According to you, can cinema make things evolve ?

It's one of the last resistance bastions ! Provided that the films are actually broadcast and reach an audience. When these ecological-political stories are well disseminated, they are effective as there aren't only activists in cinemas. If I had made a documentary about illegal immigration instead of Travaux, on sait quand ça commence…, nobody would have come to see it. Through the force of comedy, people become more attentive. My next comedy (Tu honoreras ta mère) will partly be about the crisis in Greece. In this film, I can intertwine all the relevant interactions and bring cinema to the people who are not convinced that there is something wrong. These films should even be screened in high schools or even middle schools. It is never too early to take people by the hand.

Do you have an ecological soul ?

My relationship with the environment is a source of shame ! Right now, I'm talking to you from Belle-ÃŽle, in Brittany, from a room with a fantastic view. Yesterday I went walking on the moor and of course, I can feel it's not the same air as in Paris. I know my body needs nature more regularly and I'm not giving it enough of it. But I have adopted eco-friendly gestures. I sort out the trash, I take a bath only once a week. Since I went to the desert, I turn off the faucet when I brush my teeth. In Brittany, I had a massage with gorse to get energy. It's on a local level. Apart from a mango once a month, I only eat seasonal products that are sourced within a 60 km radius. I can't stand sSupermarkets, with their plastic-wrapped similar apples. Of course, when I go there with my family, they tell me it is really cheaper than buying organic and seasonal.

You are are a socially committed film director. Part of the Fife's selection is linked with this subject as well. What appals you most?

The laws on immigration have become harsher. I belong to an association of filmmakers who support illegal immigrants. My team and I fought against a retention centre so that an Ecuadorian wouldn't be sent back to his home country. In Europe, the situation is very tough too. When I was in Greece, I witnessed a defeat, people in distress who went to Syntagma square, in Athens, to pick up vegetables that had been dumped there. I learnt that the Orthodox church was the biggest landowner in the country, that some shipowners were not paying their taxes in the country and that civil servants had not been paid for four months. I am dying to go back there.

Is there a heaven on Earth ?

Kerala, in India. It's one of the most beautiful trips of my life, hours and hours of forest going by a train window.