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Un assourdissant «Coupez» est tombé comme une foudre d'été sur le cinéma. Néjib Ayed n'est plus. 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Il est des fins que l'on n'accepte pas, même dans le meilleurs des films… Des fins qui, sans nous choquer, s'imposent à nous. Fallait-il après avoir fait de sa vie un «plan séquence» de sourire, de passion, une existence pleine de cinéma de la passion de l'être, des autres et des images, que d'un clap de fin sec… il nous quitte tous… sans dire adieu. La nouvelle est tombée le matin et beaucoup d'entre nous n'y croient toujours pas. Nejib Ayed est au-delà des hommages posthumes, ceux de son vivant étaient quotidiens. Sa passion transparaissait dans chaque mot, geste ou sourire. Le cinéma n ‘était ni une mission, ni une direction ni un métier, c'était sa vie, pleine, dans le calme comme dans la colère dans chaque millimètre de pellicule, dans chaque pixel de lumière ou de son. De son Ksar Hellal natal où il a vu le jour en 1953, il gardera toujours la musique, les couleurs des lumières et des chants maternels et en fera des films et des feuilletons. Littérature Française pour bagage de départ, cinéma pour passion et foi, il sera durant les années 1970, secrétaire général puis président de la Fédération tunisienne des ciné-clubs (Ftcc). Il dirigera la fameuse Satpec qui gérait alors la "Production et l'Expansion cinématographique"… un certain goût pour l'utopie sans doute. Il y a œuvré pour la promotion du cinéma tunisien sur la scène internationale. Il a notamment contribué, en tant que producteur délégué ou producteur exécutif, à la production de plusieurs films tunisiens. En 1999 «Rives productions» produit «Une Odyssée» de Brahim Babaï, «War reporter» (Il Hay Irrawah) de Mohamed Amine Boukhris, «Le Royaume des Fourmis» de Chawki El Mejri, parmi les films mais égalements des feuilletons télé et des séries à succès comme «Naâouret lahwa» ou «Flash-back». En 2017 il prend la direction des Journées cinématographiques de Carthage (JCC). Sa dernière mission, il était en train de l'accomplir depuis trois ans avec dévouement et passion. Dans un dernier édito du festival, il disait être "fidèles aux fondamentaux militants de nos fondateurs, nous avons à cœur de consolider un projet ancré dans la pérennité et la modernité, digne des générations qui nous suivront, et envers lesquelles nous avons une obligation d'écoute et de passation". Nejib Ayed… Qui rallumera la salle maintenant que tu t'es éteint? La réponse, tu la connais et tu pars serein. Tu as su fédérer des armées d'amoureux comme toi, auxquelles tu as transmis le pacte, le feu brûlant du cinéma. Un cinéma comme tu l'as aimé" du sud, militant, puissant, intelligent et qui ne peut plus être ignoré". Repose en éternel sourire… en éternelle paix.
