Journal of Film Preservation - FIAF

Epstein. Itto’s diphtheria vaccine is almost a magic potion, recalling
the prominence the Pasteur Institutes gained throughout the world.
Although Emile Roux invented the diphtheria vaccine as early as
1894, a major stumbling block to its initial acceptance was the delay
in communicating test results and the dispatch of the serum to
qualified local care providers outside of major metropolitan centres.
For researchers like Emile Roux, Alexandre Yersin, Adrien Loir, and
Eugène Jamot, the French colonies served as experimental test sites
for the development of new vaccines and served as a training ground
for a new generation of military doctors and medical reformers
trained in Pasteurian methods and techniques.
From the animated drawings of Conte de la mille et une nuits to
the more realistic portrayal of the Moroccan landscape in Itto,
the French colonial experimental laboratory justified the
agency of modernity as the only cure for medical and social
pathologies. Itto combines an educational, hygienic
demonstration with a compelling narrative focused on the
destiny of Morocco. Itto’s daughter represents a hope for a new
Moroccan future, no longer hindered by the guerrilla resistance
movement of Hamou El Amrar, but a part of the normative
healing agency of the Darrieu household.
As Frantz Fanon reminds us, the concept of the normative
rests on the notion of a closed society, where the family comes
to represent the nation. Thus, “A normal child who has grown
up in a normal family will become a normal [person].” The
introduction of a cure mediates an opposition between the
normal and the pathological, while the representation of a
pathological subject is motivated by a cure, in search of a
pretext for action. In effect, the pre-eminence of the cure
overdetermines the symptom.
Colonial reform was not simply about civilising the French
colonies, but was aimed at reforming hygienic and social
behaviour in France itself. In Conte de la mille et une nuits,
Mohamed’s return to his former “state of nature” through
French medical expertise poses the underlying question, who
does Mohamed represent? I would suggest that he represents
the convenient “uncivilised” North African Arab stereotype for more
assimilated North African and French metropolitan audiences. Yet
although he may function as this “uncivilised” Arab stereotype, he
also represents “natural man,” who does not merely live in a “state of
nature” but is part of nature, indistinguishable from the illustrated
North African landscape. His figure represents a desire to return to
pre-industrial primitivism and demonstrates that this desire can be
reconciled with hygienic forms of prevention and treatment.
Mohamed is cured; he is once again as strong as a lion, as agile as a
panther, as fast as a greyhound, as tireless as a camel, and the happy
parent of many healthy children. Storybook images of the lion, the
panther, the greyhound, and the camel (that illustrate Mohamed’s
23 Journal of Film Preservation / 63 / 2001
Both photos from Itto, Jean Benoît-Levy, Marie Epstein.
Courtesy of Les Archives du film
et du dépot légal du CNC, Bois d’Arcy