Matt Dillon, Riley Keough and Isaach de Bankolé are set to star in Claire Denis’ Le Cri Des Gardes, which is being produced by French production outfits Curiosa Films and Vixens, with Senegal’s Astou Production. Arte France Cinema is also backing the project.
Denis is following her Berlin-winning Both Sides Of The Blade and Cannes-winning Stars at Noon with this adaptation of Bernard-Marie Koltes’ play Black Battles With Dogs (Combat de Nègres et Chiens) written by Denis, Suzanne Lindon and Andrew Litvack.
The story spans one night near a vast construction site in sub-Saharan Africa where a master builder and an engineer and the former’s companion are confronted by a man who refuses to leave until they return the body of his brother who had been killed on the premises in a work-related accident.
The film – whose title means The Cry of the Guards in English – is set to shoot in January and February 2025 in Senegal. Goodfellas is handling international sales.
Arte France Cinema slate
Le Cri Des Gardes has secured supported from Arte France Cinema which is also backing Arnaud Desplechin’s Une Affaire (working title) starring François Civil as a virtuoso pianist in a story about impossible love blending romance and music. Nadia Tereszkiewicz, Charlotte Rampling and Hippolyte Girardot co-star in the film set in Lyon that is now in pre-produciton.
It is produced by France’s Why Not Productions.
Yann Gonzalez’s third feature J’Oublierai Ton Nom starring Vanessa Paradis is also on Arte France Cinema’s slate. Paradis will star as a schoolteacher living in a small mountain village whose life is turned upside down when she falls for a man who leads her to the edge of a disturbing fantasy world. Kinology has boarded international sales on the film produced by Pan Cinéma that will shoot in France in spring 2025.
Arte France Cinema is also backing Zou Jing’s debut feature A Girl Unknown, a coming-of-age story about identity that follows the journey of a young Chinese girl from childhood into adulthood who lives with three different families.
The project won the €2,500 Next Step Hildegarde award at this year’s Cannes’ Critics’ Week. It is being produced by Maneki Films with Yan Wang’s China-France production house Memoria Films and China’s Pure Light Films. It will shoot in China in early 2025.
No comments yet