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Paris-based Be For Films has acquired international sales rights to Marie-Helene Roux’s completed drama Muganga, starring Isaach De Bankolé and Vincent Macaigne, ahead of the European Film Market.

De Bankolé stars as the real-life Congolese doctor, pastor and Nobel prize laureate Denis Mukwege who joins forces with Belgian surgeon and atheist Guy Cadière to treat thousands of women and combat sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Muganga is inspired by Mukwege’s Panzi Hospital which provides survivors with medical treatment, holistic care and legal support.

Manon Bresch, Babetida Sadjo and Déborah Lukumuena also star.

Shot in Gabon and Belgium,...

Netflix has unveiled an untitled French-language thriller starring Vincent Cassel as a jaded DJ alongside a cast also featuring YouTube star and rapper Mister V and music producer Kavinsky, best known for the Drive track Nightcall.

It is the first feature from French graphic designer, animator, director and music producer Bertrand Lagros de Langeron, who is known professionally as So Me.

Cassel plays Scorpex, a once-famous DJ on the downslide, who has not come to terms with the fact that his glory days are over.

When Rose (Laura Felpin), an eccentric agent from French Intelligence Agency offers him the opportunity to take down popular rival Vestax (Mister V), he sees it as a chance to revive his career with a bang.

Further cast members include Alexis Manenti, Déborah Lukumuena, Nina Zem, Nicolas Maury, Philippe Katerine, Paul Mirabel, Panayotis Pascot, Manu Payet and Alice Moitié.

The feature is produced by the...

Vincent Cassel plays an aging Edm DJ in the upcoming comedy thriller from French music video director So Me, aka Bertrand de Langeron. Artistic director of the Ed Banger label and known for his music videos for Justice, Kanye West, Mgmt, and Kid Cudi, So Me is making his feature film debut with the still-untilted French feature for Netflix.

Black Swan and Ocean’s Thirteen star Cassel plays Scorpex, a once-famous DJ now on the downside who gets a chance to return to the top when an agent from French intelligence agency Dgsi (played by Golden Mustache actress Laura Felpin) recruits him to take down Vestax (French YouTuber Mister V), his young and fast-rising rival on the Edm scene. Co-stars include Alexis Manenti, Déborah Lukumuena, Nina Zem, Nicolas Maury, Philippe Katerine, Kavinsky, Paul Mirabel, Panayotis Pascot, Manu Payet and Alice Moitié.

Netflix released the first image from the film (above), showing Cassel,...

Writer-director Adura Onashile draws out brilliant performances in story of a frightened parent restricting her child’s adventures into independence

This crushingly intimate drama occupies a space barely larger than a bedroom in the rundown council house where much of the story unfolds. Even on its few ventures outside, the location filming is delivered in tight closeups, the environment beyond the figures little more than colourful smeary blurs of light. You would hardly know it was shot in Glasgow.

The people at the centre of the story are young mother Grace and her pubescent daughter Ama (Le’Shantey Bonsu), immigrants from a non-specified country, now living in the aforementioned council flat. We learn that Grace gave birth to Ama at 14 and seems petrified about her daughter leaving the safety of their flat; it’s implied but never stated outright that Ama may have been conceived via rape or incest. At any rate,...

“It’s absolutely clear, there is a real appetite for British independent cinema in France,” said artistic director Dominque Green.

Sasha Polak’s Silver Haze scooped the top prize at this month’s Dinard Film Festival, the French seaside festival that spotlights UK and Irish cinema for French audiences, that ran from September 27 to October 1.

Berlinale Panorama title Silver Haze won the Golden Hitchcock for best film. Polak’s feature reunites the Dutch filmmaker with UK actor Vicky Knight, after working together on Dirty God in 2019. It is loosely based on Knight’s own experience as a child, in which she survived an arson attack.

There were the three musketeers and now…we can expect to see that number shoot up to four in Houda Benyamina‘s long-awaited sophomore film project. Lou de Laâge leads Daphné Patakia, Héloise Letissier with Oulaya Amamra and Déborah Lukumuena (who both broke out in Benyamina’s debut) in Toutes pour une (which translates to All For One). Production takes place this month in France. Production companies include Easy Tiger and Haut et court in France, and Versus Production from Belgium.

They’ve cut their hair, strapped their chests, and slipped leather pieces under their pants, but they’re women. When Sara, a young Morisco on the run, unmasks the three musketeers protecting the Queen of France, she has only one thing in mind, to cling to these women and their brilliant idea: to dress up to be free.…...

Adura Onashile on the use of colour in Girl: 'The characters’ world, when it works, is a palace, its imagination, its freedom, until it stops being and I really wanted that to come across. The way to do that was with colour' Glasgow Film Festival will open on March 2 with Adura Onashile’s debut feature Girl, which charts a turning point in the relationship between a refugee mother (Déborah Lukumuena) and daughter (Le’Shantey Bonsu) who have built a new, self-contained life for themselves in Glasgow. We caught up with Onashile ahead of the film’s premiere in Sundance. In the first part of our chat, we talked about the genesis of the film and working with her cast. In the second section, Onashile talked about the look of the film, including the influence of video artist Kahlil Joseph - known for directing Beyonce’s videos including Love Drought and Sorry...

Film is directorial debut of Screen Star of Tomorrow Adura Onashile.

Studio Soho has acquired UK distribution rights to Girl, Adura Onashile’s debut feature which premiered at Sundance Film Festival last month.

The distributor signed the deal with New Europe Film Sales on the ground this weekend at the European Film Market; it will release the film in cinemas later this year.

Having been a 2022 BFI London Film Festival works-in-progress selection, Girl launched in Sundance’s World Dramatic Competition. It will open Glasgow Film Festival next week on Wednesday, March 1.

The film follows an 11-year-old girl and her mother...

In Girl, the feature debut from writer-director Adura Onashile, 11-year-old Ama (Le’Shantey Bonsu) begins to pull away from the co-dependent relationship fostered by her loving 24-year-old mother Grace (Déborah Lukumuena). This instantly drives a wedge between them, one that will only pull them further apart if Grace doesn’t come to terms with a traumatizing incident that occurred before her daughter’s birth. Dp Tasha Back discusses the important of color in the film and how she achieved the film’s distinctly un-drab look. See all responses to our annual Sundance cinematographer interviews here. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the […]

The post “The Opposite To Many Depictions of Glasgow”: Dp Tasha Back on Girl first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

In Girl, the feature debut from writer-director Adura Onashile, 11-year-old Ama (Le’Shantey Bonsu) begins to pull away from the co-dependent relationship fostered by her loving 24-year-old mother Grace (Déborah Lukumuena). This instantly drives a wedge between them, one that will only pull them further apart if Grace doesn’t come to terms with a traumatizing incident that occurred before her daughter’s birth. Dp Tasha Back discusses the important of color in the film and how she achieved the film’s distinctly un-drab look. See all responses to our annual Sundance cinematographer interviews here. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the […]

The post “The Opposite To Many Depictions of Glasgow”: Dp Tasha Back on Girl first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

Precocious 11-year-old Ama (Le’Shantey Bonsu) and her 24-year-old mother Grace (Déborah Lukumuena) have an intense (if somewhat co-dependent) bond in Girl, the feature debut from writer-director Adura Onashile. Living in a sprawling Glasgow apartment complex, Grace constantly fears that Ama is in danger when she leaves her home alone to work the night shift as a janitor. Perhaps this has to do with Grace’s own traumatic past—a facet of her life she will need to unpack and being to heal from if she wishes to foster a healthy relationship with her daughter, who is on the precipice of puberty and […]

The post “Curiosity and Fear Are Strange Companions”: Editor Stella Heath Keir on Girl first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

Precocious 11-year-old Ama (Le’Shantey Bonsu) and her 24-year-old mother Grace (Déborah Lukumuena) have an intense (if somewhat co-dependent) bond in Girl, the feature debut from writer-director Adura Onashile. Living in a sprawling Glasgow apartment complex, Grace constantly fears that Ama is in danger when she leaves her home alone to work the night shift as a janitor. Perhaps this has to do with Grace’s own traumatic past—a facet of her life she will need to unpack and being to heal from if she wishes to foster a healthy relationship with her daughter, who is on the precipice of puberty and […]

The post “Curiosity and Fear Are Strange Companions”: Editor Stella Heath Keir on Girl first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

Ama (Le'Shantey Bonsu) and Grace (Déborah Lukumuena) in Girl. Adura Onashile: 'What was really important for me to try to express was how great beauty can sit next to trauma and how the two can coexist' Photo: Courtesy of Barry Crerar Glasgow-based actor/writer/director Adura Onashile will see her lyrical feature debut about a mum and daughter’s relationship open Glasgow Film Festival next month, after its premiere at Sundance this week. Girl tells the story of the relationship between single mum Grace and her 11-year-old daughter Ama (Le’Shantey Bonsu) as it starts to subtly shift as the youngster nears puberty. Despite dealing with trauma and being set in a working class milieu, Onashile avoids the usual gritty harshness associated with that in favour of a warmer, more poetic approach. In the first part of a two-part interview with the filmmaker - with the second part to...

There’s a constant sense of closeness in Girl. There’s the conspiratorial closeness of a story shared so many times between mum and daughter that either can take over its narration. Then there’s the warm closeness of skin on skin in a moment of silence or the unexpected closeness offered by a new friend. But closeness in Adura Onashile’s debut feature also reveals its darker side - the threat offered by the closeness of people who are prejudiced against you in a Glasgow high-rise or the way past trauma can breath down the neck of the present.

There’s also a closer than average distance in age between single mum Grace (Déborah Lukumuena), who is in her twenties, and her 11-year-old daughter Ama (Le’Shantey Bonsu), for reasons which will be revealed through the course of the film. She could be Ama’s older sister and the pair operate like a unit,...

Adura Onashile’s debut feature, Girl, which is centered on the dynamic of an overprotective mother and an inquisitive daughter, is a delicate telling of trauma and coming of age. With such heavy themes, it’s impressive that first-time feature director handles them with such dedicated passion and precision. But she does so with such grace and intimacy that it’ll be easy to empathize with these characters.

Grace (Déborah Lukumuena) and Ama (Le'Shantey Bonsu) have a deep bond like in many mother-daughter relationships. To protect them from outsiders, the careful and anxious Grace protects Ama by establishing and enforcing strict rules. As they begin a new life in Glasgow, Scotland, things begin to change. Grace’s anxiety from a past trauma seems to get the best of her while Ama’s puberty and growing curiosity interests her in the surrounding world. Soon, Ama discovers that the origin stories that...

Premiering in the World Dramatic Competition, Adura Onashile’s debut feature Girl takes place in Glasgow, Scotland, but, given its themes of identity and belonging, this tender story of a refugee mother and daughter might as well be happening anywhere. Though the production values are exceptional for a low-budget British movie, there is also the sense that, by leaning into her restrictions, Onashile has found an interesting way to tell her story, taking us into the claustrophobic, fishbowl lives of these two loners so that it is the outside world that seems strange and ‘other’ to us whenever we are faced with it.

The mother, Grace (Déborah Lukumuena), is in her mid-’20s, and she is devoted to her 11-year-old daughter Ama (Le’Shantey Bonsu). Their backstory is never fully explained, just that the two only have each other and don’t wish for anything else other than some sort of...

Images of hands, eyes, embraces, and bonding between mother and daughter. These opening shots express the intensity of the love between mother Grace (Déborah Lukumuena) and 11-year-old daughter Ama (Le'Shantey Bonsu), who live in a Glasgow high-rise. There's no doubt these two care deeply for each other and would do anything to keep each other happy. If only things were that simple.

"Girl" is a delicate and poignant film. In a striking moment, Ama's peaceful serenity is interrupted by opening the window as the sounds of the city pour in. Ama crawls out the window to observe neighbors in the opposite high-rise. There's a sense she's longing for what the other people have -- Ama seems frustrated. Soon enough we realize why: Grace is extraordinarily protective of Ama, so much so that she's furious Ama started shouting about a fire in the other building. She's saved lives, but it means people have noticed Ama,...

Déborah Lukumuena and Le'Shantey Bonsu in Girl Photo: Courtesy of Gff After a two-year hiatus in terms of a physical event, Sundance returns to an in-person festival this year, kicking off this evening in Park City, Utah. This year’s showcase will operate as a hybrid event, with many of the films also available to stream online via its platform. The festival is certainly returning as an ‘event’ to a changed landscape, as streamers like Netflix increasingly focused on production and tightening the budgets rather than big spending.

Whether this will mean less news about late-night bidding wars remains to be seen but, of course, those heading to the ice cold mountain in Utah won’t care about that. It’s easy to forget, from afar - and especially after the pandemic stymied so many - that festivals are living, breathing creatures, each distinct and with their own energy.

Personally,...

Déborah Lukumuena and Le'Shantey Bonsu in Girl Photo: Courtesy of Gff Adura Onashile’s Girl will open this year's Glasgow Film Festival, which runs from March 1 to 12.

The film, which was shot in the city, stars French actor Déborah Lukumuena as Grace, a mum who starts a new life in Scotland with her daughter Ama (Le'Shantey Bonsu). Traumatised by her past, Grace just wants to keep her daughter safe from harm. Ama is told to trust nobody. When Ama makes friends with a classmate, it only adds to Grace’s anxiety and fear that their special bond is under threat.

Festival co-director Allison Gardner said: “I am delighted and honoured that we will open Glasgow Film Festival with Adura Onashile’s Girl, a powerful and poignant feature debut set in Glasgow.”

Tickets for the festival will go on sale on January 16....

The industry programme runs from March 6-9, with the festival taking place from March 1-12.

Glasgow Film Festival (Gff) will open its 2023 edition with Screen Star of Tomorrow 2021 Adura Onashile’s debut feature, the Glasgow-shot Girl, following its world premiere at Sundance.

The feature follows a woman named Grace (Divines star Déborah Lukumuena in her first English-language role) and her 11-year-old daughter Ama (Le’Shantey Bonsu) as they try to build a new life in Glasgow after a traumatic past. Telling Ama to trust nobody, Grace is alarmed when Ama makes friends with a classmate.

Girl is produced by Ciara Barry...

There are six UK productions and four UK co-productions in the line-up.

The UK is well represented in the 2023 edition of Utah-based festival Sundance, with debut features including Girl, Scrapper, Rye Lane and documentary Is There Anybody Out There? joining the line-up, which was announced in full yesterday (December 7). Five of the UK filmmakers selected are Screen Stars of Tomorrow.

This year’s festival takes place as a hybrid event, running from January 19-29 as an in-person event, with a selection of films available online from January 24-29.

Six UK productions and four UK co-productions have made the 99-strong line-up...

Exclusive: Warsaw-based New Europe Film Sales has acquired world sales rights for Adura Onashile’s feature debut Girl, starring rising French actress Déborah Lukumuena and big screen debutant Le’Shantey Bonsu.

The buzzy title, which was unveiled at the 2022 BFI London Film Festival’s Works in Progress showcase, was announced today as having been selected for the World Dramatic Competition of Sundance’s upcoming edition, running January 19-29, 2023

The Scotland-set drama tells the story of eleven-year-old Ama and her mother, Grace, who take solace in the gentle but isolated world they obsessively create.

But Ama’s thirst for life and her need to grow and develop challenge the rules of their insular world and gradually force Grace to reckon with a past she struggles to forget.

Established Glasgow-based theatre actress and director Onashile (Expensive Shit) wrote the screenplay and directs.

It marks the first English-language role for Lukumuena, who broke out...

The showcase takes place on October 8.

Adura Onashile’s iFeatures-backed Girl and Screen Star of Tomorrow 2022 Luna Carmoon’s debut feature, Hoard, will be spotlighted in the third edition of the BFI London Film Festival (Lff) Works-in-Progress showcase.

The showcase presents nine new feature films and documentaries from UK-based filmmakers. The in-person event, taking place on October 8 as part of the festival’s UK Talent Days focus, will screen extracts from each project, with an introduction from the film’s producer, to an invited audience of international buyers and festival programmers, with clips available online from October 8-9 to...

The BFI London Film Festival will present nine new feature films and documentaries by UK-based filmmakers at its third annual Works-in-Progress showcase. Scroll down for the lineup.

This year, the showcase, which forms part of the festival’s industry program, will be an in-person event screening extracts from each project introduced by their producer to an invited audience of international buyers and festival programmers.

The nine projects are either in production, post-production, or near completion. Clips from each project will also be available online from 8-9 October via a secure platform to a wider pool of invited international industry professionals. The in-person showcase will take place on Saturday 8 October as part of the Festival’s UK Talent Days.

Two projects from last year’s in-progress lineup are set to screen during this year’s Lff. Pretty Red Dress, written and directed by Dionne Edwards, and Medusa Deluxe, written and directed by Thomas Hardiman.

The BFI London Film Festival’s annual Works-in-Progress showcase, now in its third edition, will present nine new feature films and documentaries by U.K.-based filmmakers.

The showcase, which is part of the festival’s U.K. Talent Days focus, will be an in-person event on Oct. 8 screening extracts from each project introduced by their producer to an invited audience of international buyers and festival programmers. The projects are either in production or post-production. Clips will also be available online via a secure platform to a wider pool of invited international industry professionals.

The annual Buyers & Sellers event returns as an in-person fixture at which international sales agents can meet with U.K. buyers, and Network@Lff will host masterclasses and events for 12 U.K.-based writers, directors and producers to interact with international filmmakers and industry executives at the festival.

Festival director, Tricia Tuttle, said: “Connecting independent filmmakers...

For those familiar with Gerard Depardieu‘s stellar career, it would be fair to say he’s carved out a reputation as one of continental Europe’s finest-ever actors. The stage and screen veteran’s mere presence is one of the few things Robust has going for it, saving this comedy-drama (questionable claims in themselves) from obscurity.

Robuste – to give it its French title, and if you’re bothered about the extra letter – constantly meanders and never truly comes to life. It threatens to pick up around 30 minutes in, but in doing so flatters to deceive. All in all, a disappointing debut feature from filmmaker Constance Meyer.

Georges (Depardieu) an ageing, neurotic actor, strikes up an unlikely professional relationship with Aissa (Deborah Lukumuena), a female security officer who’s also trying to make her mark in the world of wrestling, and the pair become support units for one another as...

Further titles include Pathe’s ‘Notre Dame On Fire’, Vertigo’s ‘She Will’.

Sony thriller Where The Crawdads Sing receives the biggest-ever release for any film directed by a woman at the UK-Ireland box office this weekend, opening in 691 locations.

Directed by Olivia Newman, the film’s total tops the 673-site release for 2019’s Frozen 2, which was directed by Jennifer Lee, alongside Chris Buck; as well as the 650-site release of Cate Shortland’s Black Widow from last year – the previous widest release by a film solely directed by a woman.

Adapted by Lucy Alibar from Delia Owens’ 2018 novel of the same name,...

The youngest ever winner of a César is now playing Depardieu’s bodyguard. One of France’s best young actors talks wrestling, feminism and finding her spiritual sister in Glasgow

Déborah Lukumuena trained for months at a wrestling club in Paris in order to play a wrestler and bodyguard for her latest hit film, Robust. She noticed that in a match there would often be one minute of combat that “was very intense, very physical” and outside that, “you have to find a way to use your breath to keep calm”. Her performance as Aïssa, the personal protection officer for an erratic, ageing film star, has been lauded by French critics for its mesmerising serenity and imposing physical presence. “Sometimes the greatest outer shell can hide the greatest inner softness,” she says.

Lukumuena, 27, is considered one of the best French actors of her generation. Aged 22, she became the first black woman,...

Disney’s “Thor: Love And Thunder” topped the U.K. and Ireland box office for the second consecutive weekend with £4.06 million (4.8 million), according to numbers released by Comscore. The latest film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe now has a total of £20.8 million.

Universal’s “Minions: The Rise Of Gru” had another strong showing with £2.66 million in second place and has a total of £23.1 million after three weekends. In third position, Warner Bros.’ “Elvis” collected £1 million for a total of £16.1 million after four weekends.

Placing fourth was Paramount’s “Top Gun: Maverick.” Already the highest grossing film of the year in the territory, the Tom Cruise vehicle took a further £810,638 in its eighth weekend for a mighty total of £72.2 million.

Rounding off the top five was Universal’s “Jurassic World: Dominion,” which collected £383,502 in its sixth weekend for a total of £32.4 million.

Studiocanal’s “The Railway Children Return,” a new adventure following the 1970 classic,...

Gérard Depardieu plays a veteran movie star with a stalker, while Déborah Lukumuena steals the show as his minder

Here’s an odd-couple comedy drama about a grumpy, cantankerous old movie star called Georges (Gérard Depardieu), who is assigned a tough “minder” called Aïssa (Déborah Lukumuena) to look after him. Why does he need a security guard? Apparently, there’s a stalker issue (a pretty harmless-looking woman camps outside his apartment building) and he also seems to be the target of environmental activists.

Frankly, the premise for Aïssa’s presence in Georges’ life is a bit thin, and this looks as if it’s going to be a sentimental status-disparity movie like the French hit Untouchable, in which Omar Sy played a black caregiver for grumpy white paraplegic François Cluzet (recently remade with Kevin Hart and Bryan Cranston). Actually, Robust is a bit more interesting than that and Depardieu and...

The event celebrated up-and-coming talent.

Unifrance and Screen International held a dinner to celebrate up-and-coming French talent on May 25 at Le Studio, Cannes. 

Back in January, 10 filmmakers and actors were selected by international journalists Lisa Nesselson (Screen International), Fabien Lemercier (Cineuropa), Elsa Keslassy (Variety) and Jordan Mintzer (The Hollywood Reporter) as the most audacious, diverse, fresh and committed new French talents to watch in 2022.

Take a look at a selection of photos from the evening above.

The selected 10 are:

Charline Bourgeois-Tacquet (director) Alice Diop (writer/director) Arthur Harari (actor/filmmaker) Karim Leklou (actor) Déborah Lukumuena (actor) Rabah Nait Oufella (actor...

After winning the Berlinale Silver Bear Award with “Both Sides of the Blade” (“Fire”), Claire Denis and her longtime pal Jim Jarmusch shared filmmaking tips and anecdotes from their decades-spanning careers on stage at the New York Rendez-Vous with French Cinema.

Within minutes of watching Denis and Jarmusch laugh and gush over each other, it was clear that these two have been friends for a very long time and have admired each other’s work. Denis, who has a soft yet determined voice, has known Jarmusch since working as an assistant director on his 1986 film “Down by Law.”

“I was counting and we’ve known each other for 37 years or something like that, and what that means is we’re old, but it also means to you, young people, that shit goes by fast. But the good thing about that is the many incredibly beautiful films Claire has done,” said Jarmusch,...

After going virtual in 2021, the Rendez-Vous With French Cinema Festival is returning as an in-person event at the Lincoln Center in New York with a bevy of heavy hitters, including Claire Denis, Juliette Binoche, Jacques Audiard, Arnaud Desplechin and Mathieu Amalric.

Kicking off with the North American premiere of Denis’ Berlinale Silver Bear winning movie “Fire” (also called “Both Sides of the Blade”) on March 3, the festival’s roster is curated by Film at Lincoln Center, which is also co-organizing the event with Unifrance, the French film advocacy org.

Besides “Fire,” starring Binoche and Vincent Lindon as two lovers whose relationship falls apart, the main highlights of the 27th edition include Audiard’s sexy relationship drama “Paris, 13th District,” Charline Bourgeois-Tacquet’s debut “Anaïs in Love,” which premiered at Cannes’ Critics Week, and Desplechin’s “Deception” with Lea Seydoux.

“We feel lucky to have assembled such a prestigious roster of...

Deception director Arnaud Desplechin tells Anne-Katrin Titze about the Emmanuelle Devos Kings & Queen connection to Andrew Wylie that led to a phone call from Philip Roth.

Arnaud Desplechin’s adaptation with Julie Peyr of Philip Roth’s Deception (Tromperie), starring Denis Podalydès, Léa Seydoux (Bruno Dumont’s France), Emmanuelle Devos, and Anouk Grinberg, is a highlight of the 27th edition of Rendez-Vous with French Cinema in New York. Claire Denis’s Fire (Avec Amour Et Acharnement), starring Juliette Binoche (in a Free Talk with Constance Meyer’s Robust star Déborah Lukumuena), Grégoire Colin (Nora Martirosyan’s Should The Wind Drop), and Vincent Lindon is the Opening Night selection. Jim Jarmusch is the Guest of Honour of this year’s festival.

An in-person Q&a with Kent Jones and Arnaud Desplechin will follow a screening of Diane at the French Institute Alliance Française Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

Our Love Affairs: Arnaud Desplechin...

Constance Meyer: 'I organised the meeting between them, we went to his place something like six months before shooting. And I had no doubt when I saw them together' Constance Meyer’s Robust – starring Gérard Depardieu and Déborah Lukumuena – is a gentle drama that charts the unlikely friendship that springs up between a larger than life actor and the security guard who is tasked with looking after him and who wrestles in her off-hours. The film, which was part of this year’s French Film Festival UK, has a playful quality, incorporating aspects of Depardieu’s real life while remaining fictional and unfolds un unexpected emotional ways as these two lonely souls forge a connection. I caught up with the writer/director to chat about the origins and themes of the film.

Constance Meyer: 'The script was very written and, and as I worked with Depardieu before, it was...

Robust

The French Film Festival UK has opened this week with crowdpleaser The Big Hit and will be travelling to more than 30 cinemas across the country between now and December 15. Featuring the best of French language cinema from France and beyond, we've selected some of festival highlights to look out for. For full details of where and when you can see each film, visit the official site.

Robust (Robuste)

Belgian filmmaker Constance Meyer makes an assured debut with this gentle consideration of human connection that is powered by the luminous performances from Gérard Depardieu and up-and-coming French star Déborah Lukumuena. Depardieu has fun playing an actor who has among his traits some that are not so very far removed from the actor himself. Lukumena is Aïssa, who is assigned to provide him with security detail, whether he wants it or not. This sort of odd-couple comedy could easily...

Unexpected friendship tale co-stars Gérard Depardieu and Divines discovery Déborah Lukumuena.

Paris-based company Indie Sales has unveiled first deals on Constance Meyer’s debut feature Robust, which world premiered as the opening film of Cannes’ Critic’s Week in July.

It has sold to Austria (Polyfilm), Belgium and Luxembourg (Athena), Canada (K Films), Portugal (Films4You), Switzerland (First Hand), and the UK and Ireland (606 Distribution).

The film stars Gérard Depardieu as an ageing actor in decline, opposite Divines discovery Déborah Lukumuena as a semi-professional wrestler hired to be his bodyguard. The seemingly disparate pair discover they have a lot in common.

When we first meet Alma (Déborah Lukumuena) and Margot (Souheila Yacoub), they are at each other’s throats. They are onstage, two of a gang of young hopefuls trying out for a plum role in a semi-experimental Parisian theatre piece, but the fight is not part of their audition. It is real, and yet at the same time, unreal.

There is something unconvincing in Margot’s ginned-up outburst, in the way it gets physical but not really, in the high theatrics of squaring off and flouncing out. And if we immediately realize why — outside the two embrace, laughing, gasping at the audacity of their ruse to get the attention of the play’s director — this opening, with its themes of performativity, showmanship and friendship so ferocious it can look like conflict, is the exactly appropriate in media res introduction to Anaïs Volpé’s first feature “The Braves” — perhaps even in...

At a table in his house, Georges, an aging movie star with a reputation for uninsurable off-set shenanigans — played in a staggering coup of against-type casting by Gérard Depardieu — is running lines with his private security guard Aïssa (“Divines” breakout Déborah Lukumuena). While they rehearse, Georges cracks walnuts under heavy whomps from his meaty fist; Aïssa barely flicks a brow in response but her alarmed amusement is palpable. This funny little scene is Constance Meyer’s charming, refreshingly un-sappy odd-couple dramedy “Robust” in miniature: Depardieu all bluster and boom, Lukumuena quietly snaffling whole scenes away from him with just the sparkle in her eye.

The tale of an unlikely friendship blossoming between a wealthy older white man and his young Black helper might set the schmaltz alarm a-tinkling, but this is no “Intouchables,” and not just because, with its tactile emphasis on skin and heft and physical contact, “Robust” feels entirely touchable.

Palme d’Or-winning filmmaker Jacques Audiard and rising director Léa Mysius reminisce about presenting their respective debut features, “See How They Fall” and “Ava,” at Cannes’ Critics’ Week in an exclusive video celebrating the 60th anniversary of the sidebar.

Under the helm of Charles Tesson since 2011, Critics’ Week, which is dedicated to first and second films, has showcased more dozens of emerging filmmakers over the years. Some of them will have their latest movies unspool in competition at the festival. These include Audiard with “Paris, 13th District” which was co-written with Mysius and Celine Sciamma, as well as Julia Ducournau (“Raw”) with “Titane,” and Nadav Lapid (“The Kindergarten Teacher”) with “Ahed’s Knee.”

Audiard and Mysius are two of the 60 talents and artists who have shared testimonies about Critics’ Week brought to their lives and careers through videos and letters. Critics’ Week is unveiling these tributes throughout the month of June.

Paris-based banner Indie Sales has closed deals in key markets for Flore Vasseur’s environment-themed documentary “Bigger Than Us” which is produced by Oscar-winning actress and activist Marion Cotillard. It will world premiere at Cannes as part of an ephemeral selection of films about the environment.

The event documentary has been acquired for Australia & New Zealand (Kismet), the Benelux (Cinéart), Canada (Maison 4:3), Ex-Yugoslavia (McF Megacom), Germany/Austria (Koch Media), the Middle East (Osn), Poland (Best Film) and Switzerland (Praesens). Jour2Fête will release the documentary in France on Sept. 22.

Shot in Malawi, Lebanon, Brazil, Greece, Indonesia, Uganda and the U.S., “Bigger Than Us” sheds the light on a young generation aged 18 to 25 who are fighting for human rights, freedom of expression, climate, social justice, access to education and food security.

“We are very thankful to the Cannes Film Festival team for highlighting ‘Bigger Than Us,” thus bringing attention to...

Charles Tesson to step down after 10th edition at the helm.

French film critic Ava Cahen has been named as the new artistic director of Cannes Critics’ Week.

She replaces respected film critic and academic Charles Tesson who will step down after this year’s 60th edition after 10 years at the helm.

Under Critics’ Week regulations, an artistic director can serve a maximum of three terms of three years. Tesson was allowed one more edition to oversee the 60th anniversary.

Cahen will take up the role from August 1, having been a member of Critics’ Week feature film committee for five years.

by Nathaniel R

Déborah Lukumuena, who made her film debut in "Divines" co-stars in Opening Night film "Robuste"

In case you missed our previous Cannes rounds up we discussed the Official Competition as well as Un Certain Regard and Special Screenings. Why are we always late with these roundups? Because we like to give you more than just a list of titles that you can get at press releases (and every site) but more info on the films. The following titles are playing in Critics Week. Romanian filmmaker Cristian Mungiu who won the Palme d'Or for the great 4 Months 3 Weeks and 2 Days is presiding over this particular jury. Fun fact: All of the competition films at Critics Week this time are debuts and are thus eligible for the Camera d'Or (which has a separate jury)

Details on the films are after the jump...

Paris-based company Indie Sales has boarded Vincent Le Port’s debut feature “Bruno Reidal — Confession of a Murder,” which is set to world premiere in competition at Cannes’ Critics’ Week, the festival’s parallel strand dedicated to first and second films.

The film will also vie for a Caméra d’Or award. Le Port is a former student from La Fémis film school who previously directed the short “Le gouffre” which won the prestigious Prix Jean Vigo.

Based on a true story, “Bruno Reidal – Confession of a Murder” is set in a French village in 1905, and follows a young seminarian, Bruno Reidal, who murders a boy before surrendering immediately to authorities. While being investigated, he starts a dialogue with doctors who try to understand his lethal impulse, and identify past events which could have led him to commit this atrocious crime.

The movie is co-produced by Stank, the producer banner of Le Port,...

With most of the main Cannes Film Festival lineup now confirmed, it’s now time for the sidebars to be unveiled. First up is the lineup for the Critics Week aka Semaine de la Critique. A spotlight on new filmmakers, in recent years they’ve featured works by Julia Ducournau (who now has a film in competition this year with Titane), Hlynur Pálmason, Oliver Laxe, Agnieszka Smoczyńska, Jonas Carpignano, Myroslav Slaboshpytskiy, Ritesh Batra, and more.

This year’s slate is full of a new class of emerging filmmakers, with the opening selection, Constance Meyer’s Robuste starring Gérard Depardieu and Déborah Lukumuena, the Adèle Exarchopoulos-led Zero Fucks Given by Julie Lecoustre & Emmanuel Marre, and more. The jury this year is headed by Cristian Mungiu.

Check out the lineup below and see more about each film at the links here.

Opening Film

“Robuste,” Constance Meyer

Special Screenings

“Anaïs in Love,...

Critics’ Week, the Cannes Film Festival parallel strand dedicated to first and second films, follows the official selection’s lead in announcing an expanded lineup after taking a year off.

The 2021 program — which marks the sidebar’s 60th edition — will feature 13 world premieres, seven of them in competition, chosen from nearly 1,000 films by Charles Tesson, artistic director, and his committee. The lineup is heavy on French talent, with no American directors in the mix.

Constance Meyer’s “Robust” (previously titled “Misfit”), a drama-comedy starring Gérard Depardieu and Déborah Lukumuena (“Divines”), will open the 2021 edition of Critics’ Week. Set in contemporary Paris, “Robust” stars Depardieu as a lonely film star in decline, who forms an unexpected bond with Aïssa, a semi-pro wrestler earning a living as a security officer.

Leyla Bouzid’s “A Tale of Love and Desire” will close the edition and will also be part of the Special Screenings section,...

Parallel section will showcase 13 first and second features and 10 short films.

Cannes Critics’ Week 2021 has unveiled the line-up of its 60th edition, following last year’s hiatus due to the pandemic, running July 7 to 15 alongside the Cannes Film Festival.

It will showcase 13 features, seven of them in competition, as well as 10 short films.

French director Constance Meyer’s debut feature Robust, co-starring Gérard Depardieu opposite Divines discovery Déborah Lukumuena will open the section on July 7. Depardieu plays an ageing actor star in decline who hires Lukumuena’s character, a semi-professional wrestler, as a bodyguard at short notice. The seemingly disparate...

The company unveiled its French slate for the first half of 2021 at the online edition of Unifrance Rendez-Vous with French Cinema.

Paris-based mk2 films has launched sales on Robert Guédiguian’s youthful 1960s West Africa-set love story Mali Twist at this year’s Unifrance Rendez-Vous with French Cinema, which is running online from January 13 to 15.

The company has unveiled a first look image (see above) of the feature set against the backdrop of the febrile atmosphere of post-Colonial Mali, where youngsters danced to rock and roll music in the capital of Bamako against a backdrop of dreams of political renewal.

Indie Sales has acquired Constance Meyer’s feature debut “Misfit,” a drama-comedy headlined by Gérard Depardieu and Déborah Lukumuena, the rising star of Houda Benyamina’s “Divines.”

Shot in Paris, the film revolves around George, an aging and lonely film star in decline, and Aïssa, a semi-pro wrestler earning a living as a security officer. When Aïssa is hired to temporarily replace George’s bodyguard, a singular bond between them takes hold. Despite their differences, George and Aïssa are more similar than they thought initially.

Indie Sales will launch international sales on “Misfit” at UniFrance’s Rendez-Vous With French Cinema, which kicks off Jan. 13.

Now in post, “Misfit” is produced by Isabelle Madelaine with her Paris-based outfit Dharamsala, whose credits include Alice Winocour’s “Proxima” and Claire Burger’s “Real Love.”

“Misfit” will be delivered this summer. Diaphana Distribution will distribute the film in France.

Nicolas Eschbach, Indie Sales CEO and co-founder,...

Déborah Lukumuena, Souheila Yacoub and Sveva Alviti lead the cast of the filmmaker’s second feature, a Unité production set to be sold by mk2 Films. Filming on Anaïs Volpé’s Entre les vagues has now entered the home strait in Paris, with a completion date set for 9 October. This second full-length film by the director revealed via Heis (Chroniques) - a work which won the Contrebandes Prize in Bordeaux 2016, as well as the World Fiction Award at the Los Angeles Film Festival - brings together the likes of Déborah Lukumuena, Swiss actress Souheila Yacoub, Italy’s Sveva Alviti, Matthieu Longatte (reuniting with the director after Heis)...