02/04/2025 - Kali Boisson, Sandrine Kiberlain and Benoît Magimel lead the cast of the new Agat Films movie, sold by Playtime and helmed by the director of The Marching Band

Actresses Kali Boisson (© Marie Rouge) and Sandrine Kiberlain (© Carole Bellaiche) and actor Benoît Magimel (© Arno Lam)

Emmanuel Courcol has been shooting Banquise, his 4th feature film after Ceasefire [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (revealed on Locarno’s Piazza Grande in 2016), The Big Hit [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (screened in Cannes’ 2020 Official Selection) and The Marching Band [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Emmanuel Courcol
film profile] (unveiled last year in the Cannes Première line-up, scooping the Audience Award in San Sebastián, earning seven nominations at this year’s Césars and racking up 2.6 million admissions in France), since 15 March.

The cast of his latest opus stars Kali Boisson (seen in Beating Hearts [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile]), Sandrine Kiberlain (nominated six times for the Best Actress César, triumphant in 2014 thanks to 9 Month Stretch [+see also:
trailer
film profile], recently touring French cinemas in The Divine Sarah Bernhardt [+see also:
film review
film profile] and soon to hit screens via L‘accident de piano) and Benoît Magimel (recently awarded the Best Actor César and Lumière trophies for Pacifiction [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Albert Serra
film profile] and seen last year in Ni chaînes ni maîtres), alongside Aka Pedersen.

Adapted by Emmanuel Courcol and Irène Muscari (a duo nominated for this year’s Best Original Screenplay César thanks to The Marching Band) based on Valentine Goby’s novel Banquises, the starting point for the story is a young woman’s  disappearance. Three years later her young sister sets off in search of her in Greenland. Her parents take off after her, torn between hope of finding the former and anxiety over also losing the latter. Throughout this journey the family tries to pull itself back together, veering between painful memories and a desire to move on…

Banquise is being produced by Marc Bordure on behalf of Agat Films & Cie, in co-production with France 2 Cinéma. The film has also been pre-purchased by Canal+ and Ciné/OCS, and enjoys further support from eight SOFICA companies (Sofitvciné, indéfilms, La Banque Postale Image, Entourage, Imagellium, Palatine Étoile, Cinéaxe and Cinémage). The 42-day film shoot will take place in Greenland (over 23 days) and Ile-de-France (19 days), wrapping on 19 May. World sales will be steered by Playtime and distribution in French cinemas by Diaphana.

For the record, Agat Films & Ex Nihilo are currently overseeing post-production on Stéphane Demoustier’s L’inconnu de la Grande Arche (read our article), Amine Adjina’s La petite cuisine de Mehdi (article) and Pierre Le Gall’s Du fioul dans les artères (article). The firm will also be releasing Michel Leclerc’s Not All Men But… [+see also:
film review
film profile]  on 16 April (toplined by Léa Drucker and Benjamin Lavernhe), Lawrence Valin’s Little Jaffna [+see also:
film review
interview: Lawrence Valin
film profile] on 30 April (unveiled in Venice’s International Critics’ Week) and Lola Doillon’s Différente on 11 June (article).

(Translated from French)