India's Highlight Films is joining forces with France's Rosem Films to co-produce The Conqueror, written and to be directed by female Indian filmmaker Alka Raghuram.

Highlight's Mahesh Mathai and Rosem's Sylvain Bursztejn are jointly producing the Hindi-language film which has secured backing from Fonds Sud Cinema and is currently looking for further co-producers.

Scheduled to shoot in the mountainous Ladakh region of India in summer 2009, the film tells the story of a boy who is left mute and raging after he witnesses the murder of his mother in a blood feud.

When he becomes a man at the age of 12, the boy assumes responsibility for avenging his mother and winning back the lost honour of his village.

Raghuram is making her feature debut with the film. She has previously directed well-received shorts such as The Ant And The Monkey which was selected for the Giffoni Film Festival in 2007.

Mathai is also a director whose credits include Bhopal Express, which opened the Panorama section of the Berlin film festival in 2000, and Broken Thread, starring Linus Roache and Saffron Burrows, which is currently awaiting release.

Rosem has previously co-produced Chinese-language titles such as Lou Ye's Summer Palace and Wang Chao's Luxury Car, which won the prize of Un Certain Regard at Cannes in 2006. The Conqueror marks the company's first foray into Indian film production.

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