SEPTEMBER SAYS is a film about two young girls facing the world, the metamorphosis of teenage girls trying to grow. Through JULY's eyes, senses, and experiences, we enter her world, which is orchestrated by SEPTEMBER, her elder sister by ten months. The questions of the origin of JULY's apparent insecurity and SEPTEMBER's sometimes sadistic authority remain open, although the themes of nature vs. nurture are raised in the film. I want us to follow the characters as their intimate logic as it develops before our eyes. From a world that is familiar to us (high school, city, home) to a world that gives way to projections and introspection (Settle House, nature, the sea). I’m trying to explore the tension that familiarity creates when we look at it differently. What is interesting to me is the line in between what seems normal and what seems supernatural. It also comes from my desire to show what we usually hide in cinema – a sanitary pad, cleaning toilets, paying for a drink in a bar, doubting if we are dreaming, having sex but thinking of different things…

The tension also  comes from what we understand SEPTEMBER to be  capable of. JULY seems to be in danger in high school and she can only rely on SEPTEMBER to save her. This is the heart of the codependent relationship between the sisters. July does take risks - but when she accepts her older sister's protection, she must also accept the rules of her games. Mia Tharia (JULY) and Pascale Kann (SEPTEMBER) came to their roles free of judgement of themselves and others. They were willing to explore and be silly and found pleasure in building those characters together.

My absolute desire to focus the story on these sisters and their mother SHEELA, puts men on the sidelines. The father voluntarily remains a mystery and his absence does not take the central place in the story. The cable man is there to install the internet and becomes the object of SEPTEMBER's cruel games. The man from the bar accepts the sexual transaction which SHEELA instigates. Lastly, John is there for the first sexual experience and JULY's "revelation". They are key roles which serve the female characters.

SEPTEMBER SAYS was shot on film; the first part is shot in 16mm and the second in 35mm 2 perf. This change of format is also a subtle way to suggest a switch in July’s perception of reality. Film is a medium I love - not only the aesthetic, but also the sense that what you shoot is very precious. In between ‘action’ and ‘cut’, time is transformed. You feel like you can hear the film being printed; there is something so concrete and physical about it. The texture of film adds another layer of fiction, you feel like you are creating a painting. There is a sense that I’m taking the viewer on a journey into a world that we are building. We’re not trying to replicate reality; we’re creating another world.

As in my first film (OLLA), I wanted to focus my attention on bodies in space and their interactions. I wanted to film bodies in these enclosed spaces and also in the openness that nature offers. I focused on wide shots that made room for the appearance and disappearance of bodies in the frame. The sisters have a common body language, but it fuses with SHEELA's. They all have a common musicality, like a rallying sound, a hymn. It is through these moments of games and exchanges that I strived for a certain lightness of tone in the film.  

Familiarity is a place of strangeness and fun that I sought to explore without pathos.

- Ariane Labed