Les Films Du Losange unveils Claudel’s (childhood)

French director Philippe Claudel is set to work with key cast members of Stranger by the Lake – Pierre Deladonchamps and Patrick D’Assumçao – on his upcoming film (childhood).

The picture, which is due to shoot in France in June, revolves around 13-year-old Jimmy, a teenager forced to grow-up too soon due to his turbulent home-life, caught between a depressed mother and a controlling stepfather.

Deladonchamps, D’Assumçao and Angelica Sarre feature in the cast alongside two unknown siblings in the child roles.

The €3.9m production is due to start shooting in north-eastern France in June.  Les Films du Losange, which is also producing, will start pre-sales on (childhood) at the EFM.

Claudel is best known internationally for I Loved You So Long, starring Kristin Scott Thomas as a woman re-building her life after 15 years in prison, which competed at the Berlinale in 2008 and also won a Bafta and Cesar the following year.

The director’s last film Before the Winter Chill, also starring Scott Thomas, is currently on worldwide release.

Other new additions to Losange’s slate include a re-mastered version of Volker Schlondorf’s 1969 adaptation of Bertold Brecht’s Baal starring Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Margarethe von Trotta and Hanna Schygulla.

The company is also selling Barbet Schroeder’s Amnesia, starring veteran Swiss actress Marthe Keller as a German woman living in self-imposed exile on the Spanish island of Ibiza, who is convinced to re-appraise her opinion of her mother country by a young compatriot DJ, played by Max Riemelt.

The picture, co-produced by Vega Films and Les Films du Losange, is also in pre-production.

Other upcoming titles include Romain Goupil’s The Days Come, an episodic work reflecting on landmark life moments starring Noémie Lvovsky, Marina Hands, Valéria Bruni-Tedeschi

The company will also premiere promo-reels for Tony Gatlif’s Geronimo and Norwegian director Bent Hamer’s 1001 Grams.