The Enemy is always invisible. When he becomes visible, he ceases to be the enemy.
The Enemy brings you face-to-face with combatants from three conflict zones: with the Maras in Salvador, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and in Israel and Palestine. Their testimonies and confessions about their lives, experiences, and perspectives on war will allow you to better understand their motivations… and their humanity.
Karim Ben Khelifa’s 15-year career as a war photographer has been driven by an ever-more ambitious quest to address a crucial issue: what is the use of war images if they fail to change people’s attitudes towards war and the suffering and violence it causes? What is the use of these images if they fail to change our minds, if they don’t bring peace? The Enemy breaks with the media’s usual war imagery. By giving voice to those who carry violence within themselves, by letting them introduce themselves and explain their motives and dreams, this project not only confronts us with the perspectives of combatants, it also causes us to confront our own.
We make sense of the world through stories and we remember it through experiences.Karim Ben Khelifa
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The Virtual Reality Installation
Meet face-to-face with combatants in a virtual-reality experience where you will hear testimonies from both sides of the same conflict.
Meet combatants in augmented reality through your smartphone. Hear testimonies from both sides of the same conflict and step into the community of The Enemy.
Available on Google Play, you can also download the app developped with ARKit on the App Store.
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How many are we?
155 000Encounters
In
066Countries
On
3Continents
235 567Users
Most Active CountryÉtats-Unis
Key
The Combattants
The Installation
Encounters
Making of
There were a number of challenges in creating The Enemy:
To access reclusive and often out-of-reach individuals active in armed groups. To come equipped with the right material and the best team. To create a simple backdrop, a neutral light, and a professional studio in difficult locations. To master the technology of 3-D scans, to explain it to the combatants, and to perform scans of each of them.
And while on location, to precisely record the body language of each of these men as they speak, as they move and as they look at me with eyes that say so much.
Then, back in Paris, to arrange all of these interviews by each tenth of a second and to put them in a spatial dimension. To integrate this material into a new form of journalism. To think, to test, to design, to rethink, to test again, to develop, to start all over again, in Montreal, New York or Paris. To boil down the countless conversations with producers, team members, engineers and techs, scientists, designers, and users to the essentials in order to create a genuine virtual experience of a face-to-face encounter. To build a fine-tuned tracking system. To detect one visitor, then three, then twenty. To bring individuals closer to you and to bring you closer to them through a headset or a mobile phone.
To move in synch as new technologies appear and evolve, to align our intentions with the hardware’s potential. To embrace the many unknown parts until they are no longer unknown. More than three years ago, we launched a production that brought my team and me to four continents. We invited more than 1,500 testers with very different backgrounds, ethnicities and origins. We presented parts of the work in academic settings, at festivals, and in schools. All of this to address one single question: Could I be you if I was on the other side? We make sense of the world through stories, and we remember it through experiences. What happens then when someone else’s story becomes your experience?
Then the portraits disappear, replaced by doors, which open. In walk the two combatants — Abu Khaled, a fighter for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and Gilad Peled, an Israeli soldier ...
It was in January 2009 and photojournalist Karim Ben Khelifa was visiting the Gaza Strip in the aftermath of Cast Lead, Israel’s first large-scale anti-terrorist operation since its unilateral withdrawal from the Palestinian territory four years earlier…
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Visitor's book
Thank you for helping us to see the human being instead of focusing on the war.
La, Tel Aviv
An unprecedented experience, in both form and content. A sensitive subject on which one thinks, wrongly, to have a point of view.
Asma, Paris
Overwhelming. I had a hard time coming down ... What a message and opportunity for self-reflection. Congratulations to everyone on the creative team for taking us on this journey.
Nancy, Paris
A fascinating experience! Perfectly captures the reality of war, and humanity.
Maxence, Paris
Amazing experience everyone should experience. Really eye opening and great way to use technology in an enlightening way for once.
Yasmen, Tel Aviv
Karim Ben Khelifa and his team have pushed documentary VR a huge way forward. The Enemy manages to lead viewers through a coherent, engaging experience for a full quarter tour. They've brought in structure and empathy as only story-tellers can.
Fergus Pitt, New-York
The Enemy is an unusual opportunity to see a fantastic new way to tell stories. (…) It takes journalism art and storytelling in directions I haven’t seen before.
Sree Sreenivasan, Toronto
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Credits
Coproducers
Financial support
A project by Karim Ben Khelifa
Camera lucida team
Executive Producer
François Bertrand
Line Producer
Chloé Jarry
Project Manager
Hélène Adamo
Production Manager
Vincent Décis
Assisted by
Silvia Alba
And by
Caroline Bouffard
Production Assistants
Thibault Bernard Ana-Maria de Jesus Matthieu Mainpin Alexandra Ternant Alessandra Bogi
Production coordinators
Céline Delaunay Frédérique Dewynter
Production administration
Valérie Sieye Anthony Donato Stéphanie Garcia
VR experience distribution
Hélène Adamo
Communication
Hélène Adamo
Assisted by
Charlotte Zipper
Graphic Designer
Gordon
France Télévisions Nouvelles Écritures
Pierre Block de Friberg Céline Limorato
Antonin Lhôte Catherine Mugler
Production administration
Sandrine Miguirian Vanille Cabaret
Technical Coordination
Pascal Voisin
Communication
Agnès Desplas Léo Fauvel
National Film Board of Canada
Executive Producer
Hugues Sweeney
Producers
Louis-Richard Tremblay Marie-Pier Gauthier
Production Managers
Nathalie Bédard-Morin Marie-Pier Gauthier
Editorial Manager
Valérie Darveau
Head of Technologies
Martin Viau
Production Coordinators
Caroline Fournier Dominique Brunet Perrine Bral
Administrator
Marie-Andrée Bonneau
Technical Coordinator
Mira Mailhot
Technical Support – Editing
Pierre Dupont Isabelle Painchaud Patrick Trahan
Narration Recording
Geoffrey Mitchell Luc Leger
Marketing Managers
Paule Béland Tammy Peddle
Social Media Strategists
Kathryn Ruscito Emilie Nguyen Ngoc
Press Relations
Marie-Claude Lamoureux
Information technologies
Sergiu Suciu
Legal Services
Peter Kallianiotis
Emissive
Line producers
Fabien Barati Emmanuel Guerriero
Project Managers
Didier Mayda Jennifer Havy
3D Graphics
Vanessa Jory Jean-Baptiste Sarrazin
3D Animations
Clotilde Steffen Christophe Devaux
Development
Karim Guennoun Charles Taieb Clément Barbisan Vincent Ponsort Nolwenn Bigoin Antoine Ferrieux
Technical Experts
Fabien Barati Anthony Bousselier
Executive assistant
Sandrine Alexandre
Dpt.
Executive producer and Creative director
Nicolas S.Roy
Production managers
Geneviève Trepanier Stéphanie Emond
Artistic director
Maude Thibodeau
UX and design
Maude Thibodeau Raed Moussa Julie Delias
Main developper
Paul Georges
Developpers
Vander Amaral Guillaume Tomasi Julien Robitaille
Shooting in Israël / Palestine
Director
Karim Ben Khelifa
Assistant director
Sélim Harbi
DOP shootings
Jean-Gabriel Leynaud
Assisted by
Quentin Esperse
Photogrammetry and 3D scan
Fabien Barati
Location manager
Eman Mohammed Rubi Makeover
Shooting in Democratic Republic of Congo
Director
Karim Ben Khelifa
Assistant director
Sélim Harbi
DOP shootings
Jean-Gabriel Leynaud
Assisted by
Quentin Esperse
Photogrammetry and 3D scan
Fabien Barati
Location manager
Adolph Basengezi
Shooting in El Salvador
Director
Karim Ben Khelifa
Assistant director
Sélim Harbi
DOP shootings
Quentin Esperse
Cameraman and 3D scan
Yoray Liberman
Location manager
Paula Rosales
Post Production Unit Image and sound
DOP Unity enviromnent
Lionel Jan Kerguistel
Translations
Rhona Dumonthier-Finch Keren Gitai-Mock Bianca Jacobson Emmanuelle Ricard Elizabeth Young Gabrielle Lisa Collard Bronwyn Haslam Rhonda Sherwood Jovana Jankovic Anna Victor) Catherine Bélanger Crystal Beliveau
English voice for VR instructions
Fanny Gautier
French voice for VR instructions
Cassandre Manet
French and English Voice Over
Alexandre Daneau Peter Michael Dillon Matt Holland Gabriel Lessard
Actor's agents
Voices Tandem Emilie Françoise
Vocal coach
Benoit Rousseau Élise Bertrand
Assistant editor
Guillaume Cage Vivien Casamian Arthur Muller
Sound recording studio
Sylicone Pom'Zed ONF
Sound engineer
Philippe Chariot Bruno Lagoarde Matthieu Cochi nEric Wager Marie Muller
Supported by the Centre national du cinéma et de l’image animée Nouvelles technologies en production et Fonds Nouveaux Médias With the participation of DICRéAM With the participation of l'INA
Supported by
The TFI New Media Fund The Ford Foundation The Sundance Institute New Frontier Program The Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Arts' Doris Duke New Frontier Fellowship and the Open Society Foundations The MIT Open Documentary Lab et le Arts Center for Art, Science and Technology at MIT Centre national du cinéma et de l’image animée
The Enemy has also been supported by Google Digital News Initiative.
For their help and support during the entire production stage, productions teams and the author wish to thank:
Voyelle Acker, Tina Ahrens, Antoine Allard, François Asseman, Pauline Augrain, Markus Badde, Antonin Baudry, David Beja, Pervenche Beurier, Ludovic Blecher, Léontine Bob, SokLinh Cheng, Olivia Colo, Maya Dagnino, Juan B. Diaz, Rémy Dorne, Mathieu Fournet, Aude Gauthier, Chantal Gishoma, Patrick Gonidec, Thais Herminie, Katherine Higgins, Ingrid Kopp, Jérôme Lecanu, Philippa-Jane Mothershill, Oumar N’Daw, Bruno Patino, Rémy Pflimlin, Alexis Raison, Christine Siméone, Kamal Sinclair, Michele Slatter, Caspar Sonnen, William Uricchio, Doug Weinstock, Sarah Wolozin.
The author would like to thank Boris Razon for his involvment to intiate the project.
Production teams would like to thank the following institutions for hosting VR experience user testing in their facilities:
Le Forum des images (Corinne Béal et Michaël Swierczynski) L’IRI - Institut de recherche et d’innovation du centre Pompidou (Vincent Puig et Nicolas Sauret) Le Carrefour numérique² de la Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie (Bruno Maquart et Pierre Ricono) L’INA - Institut national de l’Audiovisuel (Kanele Bazin, Amandine Collinet et Marie Tomat)
Special thanks to
Abu Khaled, Gilad, Jean de Dieu, Patient, Jorge Alberto et Amilcar Vladimir