“I see comedy as a Trojan horse to tackle serious subjects”

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The 55-year-old French star launches her new project on Thursday (25), the comedy “Barbaric Neighbors”, in which she shares the roles of director, screenwriter and actress. The last role, however, is the one that interests him the least, he reveals in an interview via Zoom.

— The script comes first, then comes the direction. My dream is not to act in my films, but (by presenting myself as an actress) I participate in the financing of the projects. It’s not easy to get money for the type of film I want to make and the topics I want to talk about — says Delpy, who uses humor to address an important problem in the world, immigration. — I see comedy as a Trojan horse to tackle serious subjects. You inspire the audience to think and have fun about a profound topic. I think the world is not doing well and I believe it is important to engage politically at this moment in history.

“Barbarian Neighbors” tells the story of a small, quiet French town that agrees to take in Ukrainian refugees from the war against Russia in exchange for government subsidies. The wait to welcome the new residents changes scenery when they discover that in fact the town will house Syrian refugees. While trying to adapt to local reality, the new neighbors must deal with the suspicious and sometimes violent looks of the city’s residents. Delpy plays a committed teacher determined to make the refugees feel comfortable in their new home. The cast also includes names such as Sandrine Kiberlain, Jean-Charles Clichet, Laurent Lafitte, Ziad Bakri, India Hair and Mathieu Demy.

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Delpy emphasizes the importance of tackling this problem today, particularly in his country.

— Today in France we have a large number of Muslim refugees, which is generating a growing wave of racism, intolerance and Islamophobia. I wanted to make the film a mirror of what we see in everyday life, says the artist. — Treating others as enemies has always been a tool of the far right. You pick the bad guy and blame him for all of society’s complex problems. It was like that with the Jews in Nazi Germany, and it is like that with the Arabs in France today. And that’s very ignorant. If we put an end to immigration in France, the country would succumb. The same thing is happening in the United States, he warns.

The actress says she dreams of visiting Brazil and increasingly admires the country’s cinema. Fan of the recent successes of Walter Salles (“I’m still here”) and Kleber Mendonça Filho (“The Secret Agent”), Delpy believes in the good performance of national cinema at the 2026 Oscars.

— I love Brazilian cinema. I saw Walter and Kleber’s films. I am an Oscar voter and I am very confident about the chances of the film (“The Secret Agent”) — says Delpy. — I recently watched “Apocalypse in the Tropics,” by Petra Costa, and thought it was incredible. Maybe I’ll even organize a screening of the film soon. It’s a film which talks about Brazil, but which presents a clear scenario of what is happening in the United States, in France. I started watching and couldn’t stop. It’s crazy.

Politicized, committed and verbose, Julie Delpy brought a lot of herself to Céline, a character she developed alongside Richard Linklater in the Before trilogy. She was 26 when she first played the character, in “Before Dawn”. Nine years later, he reprized the role in “Before Sunset,” which earned him an Oscar nomination for best adapted screenplay, partnering Linklater and Ethan Hawke. “Before Midnight” appears after another nine-year hiatus. In 2022, many fans were waiting for the arrival of a new “Before”, but the project never became a reality. And Delpy has a good reason for this.

— I think the direction they wanted to take with the fourth film was a bit… I didn’t really see the point. They wanted my character to die of cancer — explains Delpy. — Some men only love women until they are 45 and after that they should die. It was not an image I wanted to convey. I am interested in studying relationships over the years. Making a film about loss seemed premature to me. I was 51 at the time. I thought it was too early to kill Céline. Ultimately, we couldn’t agree on an idea and ended up giving up.

Despite the disagreement, Delpy speaks very fondly of his work alongside Linklater and Hawke. The director and actor are in the midst of awards season with “Blue Moon,” a film about composer and Broadway legend Lorenz Hart, responsible for classics such as “The Lady’s a Tramp” and “My Funny Valentine.” The actress says she doesn’t feel jealous seeing her previous partners working without her.