17/07/2024 - The CNC will also be backing Héléna Klotz’s third feature, and the second feature films by Emmanuel Marre and Camille Ponsin

Directors Lise Akoka (left) and Romane Gueret (© Marie Rouge/Unifrance)

Four projects have been selected in the CNC’s second committee (dedicated to second and third features) of the third advance on receipts session for 2024. Standing tall among these works is Ma frère, which will be the second feature by Lise Akoka and Romane Gueret, who won Cannes’ Un Certain Regard Prize in 2022 by way of The Worst Ones [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Romane Gueret and Lise Akoka
film profile] (as well as nominations for the Best First Film César and Lumière Awards in 2023).

Written by the two directors, together with Catherine Paillé (Magnetic Beats [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Vincent Maël Cardona
film profile], All Hands on Deck [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Guillaume Brac
film profile], Ogres [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile]), their latest opus is a film sequel, of sorts, to the web-series Tu préfères (2020). The story kicks off in Paris in a working-class neighbourhood in the city’s 19th arrondissement. Shai and Djeneba are 19 years old and have always been friends. One is encumbered by a suffocating family, the other by overwhelming loneliness. One summer, they find themselves working as leaders at a summer camp, far from the tower blocks in whose shadow they were raised, where they are officially responsible for a tribe of children aged between 6 and 10. On the threshold of adulthood, they are forced to make certain choices in order to grow up and ultimately reinvent their friendship.

The cast stars Shirel Nataf (acclaimed in Little Ones [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Julie Lerat-Gersant
film profile] and Spare Keys [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile]), Fanta Kebe (Tropic [+see also:
trailer
film profile]), Zakaria Lazab and Mouctar Diawara (both unearthed via Orchestra Class [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile]). Ma frère is produced by Jean Dathanat and Pierre Grimaux on behalf of Superstructure Films, in co-production with France 3 Cinéma and Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Cinéma. Pre-purchased by Canal+ and France Télévisions, the film will be distributed in French cinemas and sold worldwide by StudioCanal. Filming will unfold between 1 August and 28 September in Drôme and Paris.

The CNC will also be throwing its weight behind Celles qui parlaient tout le temps, which will be Héléna Klotz’s 3rd feature film after Atomic Age [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Héléna Klotz
film profile] (screened in the 2012 Berlinale’s Panorama section and awarded the Jean Vigo Prize and the Grand Prize at Angers European First Film Festival) and Spirit of Ecstacy [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Héléna Klotz
film profile] (selected for Toronto’s Platform competition last year). Production is entrusted to Justin Taurand on behalf of Les Films du Bélier.

An advance on receipts is likewise winging its way to Notre salut, which will be the second feature film (and first solo feature film) by Emmanuel Marre, who took part in Cannes’ Critics’ Week in 2021 with Zero Fucks Given [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Emmanuel Marre and Julie Le…
film profile] (co-directed with Julie Lecoustre and earning Adèle Exarchopoulos a Best Actress nomination at last year’s César Awards). The story takes us back to September 1940, when Henri Marre arrives in Vichy alone. He knows no-one but aspires to finding his place in the new regime. In his suitcase he carries a political manuscript called Notre Salut [Our Health] which he intends to get published. Henri wants to help save France from collapse, but perhaps he’s the one most in need of being pulled back from the brink… Production is entrusted to Alexandre Perrier on behalf of Kidam, together with Belgium’s Michigan.

Last but not least, the CNC will be backing Les Furies, Camille Ponsin’s second feature film (and first fiction feature) following her documentary Marie-Jo Will See You at 4 [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (nominated for last year’s Lumière). Written by the director in league with Jean-Baptiste Delafon, the story catapults us into a remote valley in the region of the Cévennes, where a community of neo-rural people live in isolation, setting themselves no limits and sharing everything. Just like in the 1970s, love and fraternity are key values here. Everyone finds their place, draws benefit, and finds a purpose. Everyone except for Anja, that is. An elusive and troubled child, she eventually runs away from the community to live a nigh-on wild life in the surrounding woods. Her distress, her madness and her fury sweep everything up in their path: the community, utopias, even her own mother (who might be played by Céline Sallette). Production falls to Isabelle Madelaine on behalf of Dharamsala.

(Translated from French)