Julie Delpy’s immigration-themed comedy Meet The Barbarians (Les Barbares) is among eight new titles Paris-based sales company Charades is launching at Unifrance’s Rendez-Vous with French Cinema this month.
The event takes place from January 16-23 in Paris.
Charades extensive Rendez-Vous line-up also includes 3D animation Flow, romantic comedy Just A Couple of Days starring Camille Cottin, Jeremie Sein’s Olympic sports comedy Game Changers, Antoine Raimbault’s political thriller Smoke Signals, Gustave Kervern’s revenge story Enough Is Enough!, dark comedy Plastic Guns plus recently announced adaptation And Their Children After Them and lottery comedy Lucky Winners.
Meet The Barbarians is set in a small village in Brittany where the townspeople are all set to welcome a family of Ukrainian refugees, but a family of Syrian refugees arrive instead. Many local residents do not take too kindly to their new neighbours even though the family defy all expectations. Delpy stars with Sandrine Kiberlain, Laurent Laffitte and India Hair. The satirical comedy is produced by Michael Gentile’s Paris-based The Film. It is set for a 2024 release via Le Pacte.
Julie Navarro’s Just a Couple Of Days, starring Camille Cottin and singer-actor Benjamin Biolay, is a different take on immigration. It is about a music critic relegated to field reporting who heads off to cover the evacuation of a refugee camp at the edge of Paris where he falls victim to police violence and becomes the face of the refugee cause. Just a Couple of Days is produced by 31 Juin Films and set for an April 2024 release in France via Bac Films.
Flow, the latest 3D animation from Away director Gints Zilbalodis, is produced by Sacrebleu Productions, Dream Well Studio and Take Five and was presented at Annecy’s Work-in-Progress. The story follows a cat who takes refuge on a boat after his home is devastated by a great flood during what appears to be the end of the world. Surrounded by various species, he and the other animals will have to team up despite their ostensible differences to navigate the challenges and dangers of adapting to a new world. The film is in post-production with expected delivery in the second half of the year.
Known for his hit TV series Parlement, Jeremie Sein returns with his first feature Game Changers set during the Olympic Games. After 10 days of competition, France has yet to win a gold medal, so the hopes of a nation rest on the shoulders of a young world shooting champion. As the competition approaches, he is forced to share a room with a swimmer who seems more preoccupied with extracurricular temptations in the Olympic village than with his race.
Benjamin Voisin, Rivaldo Pawawi and Emmanuelle Bercot star in the film from prolific French production house Avenue B. It is set for a May release in France from Bac Films.
Gustave Kervern’s Enough is Enough! stars Yolande Moreau, Laure Calamy, Raphael Quenard, Anna Mouglalis and Jonathan Cohen and is a comedy about an elderly woman living in an assisted living facility whose son and sole support system dies. She decides to take revenge on all of the malevolent people she has encountered in her life. The film produced by Les Films du Worso and Arte France.
Antoine Raimbault’s second feature Smoke Signals stars Belgian actor Bouli Lanners, Thomas VDB and Celeste Brunnquell in a story about a member of the European Parliament who is shocked by the mystery-shrouded dismissal of the European Health Commissioner and embarks on a behind-the-scenes investigation to uncover a conspiracy hatched by the tobacco lobby.
Delphine Baril, Charlotte Laemmel, Laurent Stocker and Jonathan Cohen star in Jean-Christophe Meurisse’s Plastic Guns about a man arrested during a trip to Denmark, suspected by local police of being a wanted murderer accused of killing his wife and three children. Bac Films will release the film this year. It is produced by Mamma Roman.
Charades is also kicking off sales at the Rendez-vous on French twin brother writing-directing duo Ludovic and Zoran Boukherma’s And Their Children After Them, a coming-of-age story set across several subsequent summers produced by Alain Attal’s Tresor Films and Hugo Selignac’s Mediawan-owned Chi-Fou-Mi. Gilles Lellouche, Ludivine Sagnier and Paul Kircher star in.
Rounding out the company’s line-up is dark comedy Lucky Winners about the misadventures of lottery winners produced by Les Improductibles.
Charades is also giving market premieres to Stéphane Demoustier’s Borgo and Noé Debré’s A Good Jewish Boy at the Rendez-Vous and continuing sales on Little Girl Blue, The Goldman Case, Chicken for Linda! and Along Came Love.
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