Riyad Satuf. “We can walk away with what we think are huge flaws and finally get out of it.”

Good luck with volume 6! The Arab of the future, Riyad Satuf closes a cycle that has become an editorial phenomenon, selling more than three million copies. Uncovering what happens to his brother Fadi, who has been kidnapped by his father who has resettled in Syria, he simultaneously recounts his formative years and his desire to capture the undiscovered parts of reality through comics. Consecration on January 25. the author and director were awarded the main prize of the Angoulême festival, the highest award in the world of French comics.

In the video: the trailer. High school student By Christophe Honoré, with Juliette Binoche and Vincent Lacoste

Is it bad luck talking about myself in a promo?
Despite appearances, I rarely talk about myself. I talk about myself through my books or about my books, so to speak, through me, but I don’t tell much about my life. And it’s not a job. I have dreamed for years that people are interested in my work, that now that it is happening, I am very happy.

Why is this book important to me?
As this volume closes The Arab of the future and that it lives up to what I envisioned when I started the cycle in 2014. I usually start with a storyboard, I have my editor and trusted readers like Emil Bravo read a very precise cut. Everything there was done with a pen, and I was left alone at home, continuing with automatic writing, until I immediately handed everything to the publisher.

How does this work resonate in my life?
Suppose I wanted to share with readers. Throughout the day, I received dozens of messages on social media from people asking me what happened to my family and when they would know. I am glad to tell myself that they have the answer, and I feel a little relieved. I’ll be able to move on to other projects like this Les Inconnus film…

The news of the moment is more important than my news.
I’m surprised we don’t talk about science news more. I recently heard the president of BioNTech say that a cancer vaccine will be ready by 2030…

“Each of my books has its flaws, its qualities, but I love them all”

Why should I read this volume 6?
If we read the previous ones, then we have a priori I want to read this. everything is solved. Then I also open my trajectory there, and I remember that in my youth I really liked travel stories. I read that of Moebius, which influenced me, but also influenced me Mermoz The autobiographical stories of Kessel or Saint-Exupéry, and if I can convey to the younger generations that what happens to us in childhood shapes the adult, also convey that not everything happens at once that we can walk away from. what we think are huge flaws and to finally get out of it will be a real satisfaction.

Is the best book always the last?
I do not believe that. Each of my books has its flaws, its qualities, some are less appreciated by people than others, but I love them all. I don’t intellectualize the process of writing, and maybe that’s why I get the impression that books are born the way children are born. We don’t choose the color of their eyes or the shape of their nose. we settle for them and love them no matter what they look like.

The question I don’t answer.
Find out what my relatives think about my comics. I always say I’m going to talk about it in the rest of my albums… And I actually talk about it a little bit in this volume. Paradoxically, I’m pretending to tell my life, when in fact I’m romanticizing the real thing, I choose the structure, the cut, two pages of two-year period and an eight-hour-to-two-hour episode, and that changes everything. .

What am I going to do after this interview?
I’m going to draw my page Esther’s Notebooks next week…

Is there a misunderstanding about me?
You might think I have a delusional outlook when it’s a genetic trait; I have my grandfather’s crescent eyes. I say in The Arab of the future that I often try to widen my eyes to fix it…

In the video, Drawings by Yves Saint Laurent By Loic Prigent

At the time of writing you…
Hurry to the end! I see The Arab of the future like some kind of walking tour and with this sixth volume I was looking forward to being at the top or at least at the destination to see how far we had come.