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David Murgia, Slimane Dazi, Karoline Rose and Suzanne Aubert all shine bright in the cast of the filmmaker’s 19th feature, a Prince Films production sold by Les Films de Losange. Halted by the health crisis after several weeks of filming across February and March, Tony Gatlif revived his Tom Medina film-set at break-neck speed once lockdown had ended. He’d wrapped shooting by the end of May, becoming the first director in France (by far) to resurrect a suspended production, a fact which won’t come as a great surprise to many, given his cast-iron character teeming with love for life and freedom. Tom Medina is the 19th feature by the filmmaker, who has notably won acclaim in Locarno (scooping the Silver Leopard in 1997 for Gadjo dilo), Berlin (gracing the 2012 Panorama line-up with the documentary Indignados) and, most importantly, in Cannes, where he has featured in the Official Selection showcase.

His role in Heartbreaker could take Romain Duris into the mainstream. But don't categorise him just yet

There's a recurring line in Romain Duris's new film, Heartbreaker: the suggestion that when he smiles, he looks like "a bit of a dickhead". The woman playing his sister says it, the woman playing his love interest says it. He says it. He reiterates it now, over espresso in a Paris hotel. "Yes! This is not the ideal guy. He's a simple guy. He's a buffoon [he pronounces it to rhyme with muffin]. And he has a dickhead face, yes."

He laughs. Duris does not, in fact, look like a dickhead, less still act like one. But he does have a completely transformative smile, capable of changing his face in the flick of a lip: from sexy to silly, brooding to buffoonish. In Heartbreaker, the reason he's supposed to look dim when he grins is that his emotional cover has been blown: his character,...