PARIS: Farida Khelfa, a former French-Algerian model, who has worked for famous French designers such as Jean Paul Gaultier, Azzedine Alaia and Thierry Mugler, has now turned her focus on making documentary films.
Her last one, “The Other Side of the Veil,” filmed in Saudi Arabia and Dubai in 2017, was about Arab women. Khelfa, 59, is a close friend of Carla Bruni — the wife of former French President Nicolas Sarkozy — who was also a model and singer.
Arab News spoke to Khelfa in her Parisian house with its beautiful terrace in the middle of the city. The property is filled with paintings and pieces of art collected by her husband, Henri Seydoux, a computer engineer and the owner of French wireless products manufacturing company Parrot. He has also been involved in archaeological excavations in Egypt.
When Arab News caught up with Khelfa, it was during Paris Fashion Week and she was understandably very busy.
She had spent the first evening of the fashion week at the Porte Doree museum of her friend, the famous French shoe designer Christian Louboutin, where he was exhibiting his shoe designs as well as his other favorite forms of art.
The next evening was spent at Anthony Vaccarello’s fashion show; he is the creative director of Yves Saint Laurent and she likes his work. “I love what Vaccarello does,” Khelfa said, adding that she knew Yves Saint Laurent at the end of his life and got along well with him but had never worked with him.
Khelfa said that she had now moved from modeling to making 50-minute documentary films and had worked on three documentaries — a profile of Gaultier for French television, a report on Tunisian youth, and a film about her friend Louboutin. She accompanied him to Egypt, Los Angeles, and London during the making of the documentary.
Later when she visited Jeddah and Dubai, she was invited to a fashion competition organized by the late Franca Sozzani who was at Vogue Italia. That was a great fashion event with many stars of the fashion world in attendance.
“I discovered at that time the great women designers in Jeddah. I never knew that there were such talented Saudi women; that was in 2016 before Saudi Arabia opened itself to the world,” said Khelfa.
“I immediately realized that it was important for me to make a documentary about these women because nobody would have believed there were women like that in Saudi Arabia. That was not my first visit to Saudi Arabia, but it is when I decided to come back and film.
“After that, I was invited to Dubai Fashion Week and while there I also filmed women designers for the documentary. What I learned interested me very much. I realized that in these countries, there were many talented women writers, very interesting artists, and actresses so I widened my scope focusing on women of the fashion world but including others as well,” she added.
Both of Khelfa’s parents are Algerian but she was born in Lyon in France and grew up there. She has visited Algeria on a number of occasions but said her knowledge of Arabic was very limited. “I love to listen to spoken Arabic. I like some accents very much, for example the Egyptian accent and the Lebanese which has a musical tone.”
On becoming a model, she said: “I never expected to be a model because I did not have a model’s figure. I was a bit plump, so I didn’t believe it when it was proposed that I should be a model. I went very cautiously because I did not really believe I could make it my job, but my first show was with Jean Paul Gaultier.”
Asked if she would be interested in working in films, she said: “I have already played in films and I am interested in movies and acting but now my focus is on documentaries.”
Khelfa pointed out she had discovered a world of politics she had never known before when she took part in Sarkozy’s campaign against former French President Francois Hollande in 2012.
“Sarkozy agreed for me to accompany him during the campaign because I am a close friend of his wife, Carla. I realized that campaigning politicians are like rock stars, changing shirts five times a day because they are drenched in sweat. I saw it was a high-level marathon with a lot of activity and action.” Bruni, she added, was a great woman and “a sunny character.”
Khelfa had seen the AlUla exhibit at the Arab World Institute in Paris and said she would love to visit the Saudi heritage site and present her documentary in Jeddah.
However, she admitted that her knowledge of Arab countries was very limited. “I often go with my husband to Egypt, when he is doing excavations there.”
The couple have two sons who are studying in the US. Khelfa, however, has tremendous energy and great drive so she plans to continue work as a documentary producer in order to show the world the unseen side of Arab women.
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