Brussels-based Be for Films has taken world sales rights on Benoit Mariage’s new comedy-drama Habib about a young Belgian actor of Moroccan parentage who takes a role as Francis of Assisi in a bid to break the cycle of being typecast as an amiable Arab in mediocre films.
Getting into character is a challenge, however, when his father unexpectedly returns to Brussels from Morocco with his new wife for treatment for early-onset Alzheimer’s and Habib finds himself juggling the demands of his different milieu.
“Bittersweet comedy tinged with irony is my way of telling stories. Laughter is perhaps the politeness of despair. It is also a modest way for me to show my love for the characters I bring to life,” Mariage said of his new project.
The film is in the last stage of post-production in Brussels. It stars Bastien Ughetto, Sofia Lesaffre, Thomas Solivérès, Michel Fau with the participation of Catherine Deneuve.
It is Mariage’s sixth film after his 2014 comedy Les Rayures Du Zèbre starring long-time collaborator Benoit Poelvoorde as a soccer manager who scouts a young talent on the streets of the Ivorian capital of Abidjan and tries to integrate him into a team in the Belgian city of Charleroi.
Long-time Belgian collaborators Michael Goldberg at Daylight Films and Boris Van Gils at Formosa lead produce in co-production with Switzerland’s Cab Productions and France’s Polaris Films.
Goldberg and Van Gils’s recent joint productions include Stephan Streker’s The Enemy and Michiel Blanchart’s multi-award winning short You’re Dead Helen.
Paris-based distributor KMBO has taken French rights.
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