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“It Came Down to Me Not Wanting to Miss Out on the Trip”: Producer Asma Chiboub on Where the Wind Comes From

A girl with long, black hair wears a red jacket. She is sitting next to a boy with short curly hair and a blue denim jacket. They look at each other lovingly.Where the Wind Comes From, courtesy of Sundance Institute.

A competition in southern Tunisia becomes a road trip destination for young friends Alyssa(Eya Bellagha) and Mehdi (Slim Baccar) in Where the Wind Comes From, the feature debut from writer-director Amel Guellaty.

First-time feature producer Asma Chiboub talks about her experience on Where the Wind Comes From, and the current state of the industry, below.

See all responses to our annual Sundance first-time producer interviews here

Filmmaker: How did you connect with this filmmaker and wind up producing the film?

Chiboub: I met Amel Guellaty in 2014 around her first short film, Black Mamba, which I produced and which premiered in 2017. It was a beautiful first collaborative experience and our film was successful, meeting many different audiences around the world. It came as no surprise that in 2018, Amel gave me her feature film project Tunis-Djerba (which subsequently became Where the Wind Comes From) to read. I fell in love with the characters, began to visualize the colors and light and hear the music of this road movie, and it came down to me not wanting to miss out on the trip. 

Filmmaker: How long a process was it to produce the film, and if you could break it into stages, periods of time, what were they? Can you also discuss how the financing came together and how long a process that was?

Chiboub: Amel began writing Where the Wind Comes From in 2016, I joined the development of the project in 2018 and the film will have its Premiere at Sundance 2025. In terms of stages, of course, there’s the shoot, which is decisive in the making of the film, but I can’t really divide the film’s production process into very distinct periods, given that the script didn’t stop evolving, right up to the shoot, or even the edit, and right up to post-production, we continued to look for financing.

In 2020, Karim Aïtouna, the film’s French producer, joined us and, together, we obtained the Tunisian-French bilateral fund, which was the first stone in the edifice, paving the way for the rest of the financing. From 2018 to 2025, the process was very long and arduous! So long, in fact, that Amel and I each gave birth to a child, and in the meantime we gave birth to a second short film together, entitled Chitana

Filmmaker: Did you have important or impactful mentors, or support from organizations, that were instrumental in your development as a producer?

Chiboub: My participation in 2019 at the Durban Filmmart, with Lucas Rosant as my mentor, gave me a certain amount of confidence. It was there that I made my first public pitch, and I’m glad I did it in such a caring environment and within the African continent. My participation in the EAVE (European AudioVisual Entrepreneurs) Producers network was also a great help. It’s a place of exchange where I’ve learned as much from experts like Ankica Tlilic and Lise Lense-Moller as from my generous peers. Few people know or understand what we do, and most are unaware of the weight of stress and responsibility that falls on us, producers, especially when we’re a small company in a country where there isn’t really a well-structured and stable film industry. That’s why it’s so important for a producer to have a space where they can confide in and recharge their batteries, because there’s a certain loneliness in the producer’s life that tends to be overlooked (by the way, I read a very edifying article on this subject a few years ago by Taylor Hess in Filmmaker Magazine). 

Filmmaker: What was the most difficult aspect of producing this film?

Chiboub: The financial aspect, without hesitation, especially for a first feature film, for both director and producer. On the other hand, the shooting of the film was completed at the end of June 2023, and the post-production was spread over the whole of 2024. You have to double down on your strength to keep going and find meaning in what you do while genocide against Palestinians in Gaza is unfolding before your very eyes with impunity.

Filmmaker: What single element of the film do you take the greatest amount of pride in, or maybe were just most excited by, as a producer?

Chiboub: I was happy (“proud” would sound pretentious) when Amel told me that she pretty much got everything she wanted and needed as she didn’t have to make any concessions during the shoot. After all, our mission as producers is to provide directors with the best possible conditions to make their films as they have dreamed and imagined them.

Filmmaker: What surprised you or was unexpected when it comes to the producing of the film?

Chiboub: We started shooting on May 20, which in Tunisia already corresponds to summer, but we were unlucky enough to have very capricious weather—enough to convince even the most hardened “climate change skeptics”! It was quite a challenge, especially for a road movie. Fortunately, the whole team doubled down on ingenious ways to continuously change the work plan and adapt to the unforeseen conditions.

Filmmaker: What are the challenges facing new producers entering the business right now at this unique historical moment? And what could or should change about the film business to make producing a more sustainable practice?

Chiboub: We’re at a time when the future of cinema as we know it is highly uncertain in the medium term. With the profusion of images to which they are exposed and to which they have access at the click of a button, with the advent of AI and a host of other factors, will the younger generation continue to go to the movies? Will they still have the patience to watch feature films? Will the quality of films be maintained, or will they give way to the principle of supply and demand? I don’t think we have any choice at the moment but to make films and go to the cinema to encourage this industry and preserve the cinema crafts for as long as possible.

But more specifically, for us Arab and African filmmakers, we face other specific challenges, mainly related to financing and the inherited and sustained North-South power dynamics, because making a film is always arduous of course, and not everyone can hang on for years to get there. Not to mention the fact that it’s very difficult to make a decent living from our profession, except in very rare cases. The responsibility for finding lasting solutions ultimately lies with governments. It’s up to them to put in place the appropriate mechanisms, in close collaboration with people in the industry, for the entire creative chain, from development to distribution, but only if governments have the will to do so.

Filmmaker: Finally, what advice would you pass on to a future new producer preparing to embark on their first production?

Chiboub: From my own experience, where it took me 7 years to produce my first feature film, I’d say it’s important to work with someone you get along with and deeply respect. Because there will be moments of doubt, discouragement and disagreement when you need to preserve your desire to make the film, and when you need to motivate your creative partner anew and remind them why they wanted to make the film in the first place. I think it’s also necessary for a producer to have people in the business to turn to for advice, support or simply to learn from their own experience, good or bad.

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