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In new Max series “Malditos,” leader of a Gypsy community Sara (Céline Sallette) in southern France is threatened with eviction by rising waters. To save her business and provide a future for her sons, she needs to form new alliances, and soon. Juan (Damien Bonnard) might be her best bet.

Looks like the beginning of a beautiful friendship, right? Wrong.

“It’s going to get worse and worse. They are enemies,” says Sallette at Canneseries, while Bonnard jokes: “And friends, just like the Capulets and the Montagues. In a way, they are exactly the same.”

Their complicated relationship is bound to get even more heated, even though they ultimately “respect” each other, argues Sallette. Bonnard disagrees: “I’m not sure if you do. You set up traps for me.”

“This is what they told us about Season 2,” she adds.

“Malditos” is produced by Mediawan-owned White Lion Films. It’s...

Director Édouard Salier tells the story of twin brothers training to become stellar explorers. But whether we should accept that space is reserved for humanity’s best remains unclear

A strain of science fiction has emerged lately, especially in Europe and more specifically France, that’s very sparing with visual effects and more dependent on tricks involving makeup and sets, sprinkled with a bit of body horror, à la David Cronenberg. French director Thomas Cailley’s The Animal Kingdom, which debuted in Cannes and played at the London film festival but has yet to open in the UK, is very much in this style, with genetically mutated people turning into animal-human hybrids – lizards, birds, all manner of mammals – and leaving the civilised world behind.

Tropic, a film directed by Édouard Salier, who has a horror feature, Cabeza Madre, under his belt, and lots of shorts and music videos – is in a similar vein.

"It's clear to everyone that their closeness is holding him back." Dark Star Pics has revealed the official US trailer for an indie sci-fi creation called Tropic, also known as Tropique, originally from France. (It also goes under the title Things Behind the Stars.) This first premiered at both Fantastic Fest 2022 and also at the Sitges Film Festival more then a year ago, but is only now getting released in theaters in 2023. It already opened in France a few months ago, and arrives in the US (in theaters then on VOD later) in December. As twin brothers and best friends Lázaro and Tristán train together for the Astronaut Academy tests, they find themselves facing a greater challenge. When disaster strikes, the pair must find their place in a world where there is no room for monsters. A mysterious meteor from space crashes down, completely deforming one of the brothers, turning...

Tropic

A hit at last year’s Fantastic Fest and now part of the Glasgow Film Festival line-up, Edouard Salier’s Tropic is the tale of twin brothers Tristan (Louis Peres) and Lazaro (Pablo Cobo), both of whom are training to serve as astronauts in a vital mission. Although, close to the characters as we are, we never find out the full background to the mission, it’s clear that something strange is going on. From time to time, green lights appear in the sky. When one of them plummets to Earth and lands in a lake where the brothers are swimming, Tristan is injured, leaving him with physical and cognitive impairments. It’s an event which transforms their relationship and throws the future into doubt.

I met up with Edouard shortly before the Glasgow Film Festival, at what seemed like an auspicious time to talk, as there was a green comet.

Holding one’s breath underwater is a little more complicated than it might seem. It requires mental skills, not just physical ones – unless one can keep absolutely calm and regulate one’s bodily processes, it’s impossible to do it for a significant length of time. Tristan (Loius Peres) can do six minutes – still way short of what pearl divers achieve, but impressive for a young Frenchman, and, importantly, one of the best times in the astronaut training group. His brother Lazaro (Pablo Cobo) struggles to do four. Tristan works hard to encourage him, to get him into shape. There are only three places open to France on the pending European mission, and he is determined that they will go together.

There are little hints scattered throughout Edouard Salier’s film to the effect that something is seriously amiss. The year is 2041, but there is talk of this mission being the last.

Pulsar Content and XYZ Films have dropped the teaser for “Tropic,” Edouard Salier sci-fi drama which world premiered at Fantastic Fest and will next play in competition at Sitges on Oct. 9.

Penned by Salier and Mauricio Carrasco, the film follows Lázaro and Tristán, two twin brothers and best friends who are training together for the Astronaut Academy entrance tests. One day, Tristán is contaminated with some mysterious residue which makes him monstrous physically and weakened mentally. This disaster forces Lázaro to let go of how he remembers his brother and learn to love him as he is now, in a world where there is no room for monsters.

“Tropic” stars Pablo Cobo, Louis Peres, Marta Nieto, and Marvin Dubart. It was produced by Ninon Chapuis and Jean-Michel Rey, Rezo Productions. The movie will be released in France by Rezo Films.

Salier comes from a graphic background and is passionate about science fiction,...

Exclusive: Pulsar Content and XYZ Films have partnered to handle sales on the Fantastic Fest and Sitges sci-fi drama Tropic, directed by Edouard Salier who also co-wrote with Mauricio Carrasco.

The film follows Lázaro and Tristán (19), twin brothers and best friends, who are training together for the Astronaut Academy entrance tests. One day, Tristán is contaminated with some mysterious residue which makes him monstrous physically and weakened mentally. This disaster forces Lázaro to let go of how he remembers his brother and learn to love him as he is now, in a world where there is no room for monsters.

The French-language feature stars Pablo Cobo, Louis Peres, Marta Nieto, and Marvin Dubart, and was produced by Rezo Productions, Ninon Chapuis, and Jean-Michel Rey. Above is a first-look clip.

The pic will world premiere at Fantastic Fest on September 23 at the Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar and will screen at Sitges...

It marks director Edouard Salier’s debut feature after a number of award-winning shorts.

Paris-based company Pulsar Content has boarded sales on French director Edouard Salier’s near-future sci-fi drama Things Behind The Stars ahead of the EFM.

Set in France in 2041, it revolves around two twin brothers who are training to be astronauts.

Their relationship takes on another dimension when one of them is contaminated with a mysterious residue that disfigures him, weakens his mind and makes him fluorescent at night.

Louis Peres, seen recently as the protagonist Etienne Lantier in France Televisions’ high-end serialised adaptation of Emile Zola’s Germinal,...

“Stalk,” Simon Bouisson’s timely French show tackling cyber spying and bullying, has lured a flurry of top TV channels across the world.

Produced by Priscilla Bertin and Judith Nora at Silex Films, the half-hour psychological thriller series was a big hit on France Televisions’s platform Slash and later aired on the broadcaster’s linear channel France 2 in the slot following “Call My Agent! The second season, which won best half-hour series and best music (for Paul Sabin) at La Rochelle TV Festival, recently premiered.

FranceTV Distribution, the commercial arm of the broadcaster, has sold the first two seasons to HB0 Latin America, Gsn in Russia and Shahid in the Middle East. South Korea’s Navel picked up season one, while the second season has been picked up by Wdr and Sony in Germany, Rai Play in Italy and Ici tou.tv in Canada.

Bouisson, who previously helmed the...

Silex, the up-and-coming Parisian production banner, is producing “Stalk,” a high-concept, contemporary series skewing millennials for France.tv, the streaming service of French broadcasting group France Televisions. The series was co-created, co-writen and will be directed by Simon Bouisson, who previously helmed the critically acclaimed web series “Wei or Die.”

Written by Bouisson and Jean-Charles Paugam, “Stalk” follows the rise and fall of Lux, an 18 year-old hacker who got hazed and humiliated by the coolest students during his first days at a prestigious engineering school and sets off to take his revenge. His plan consists in cyber-stalking them, hacking their phones and computers to discover their secrets and integrate their clan to ultimately manipulate them.

Priscilla Bertin and Judith Nora, who are producing at Silex Films, described “Stalk” as a psychological drama featuring an ultra-smart protagonist similar to Jesse Eisenberg in “The Social Network.”

“‘Stalk’ compelled us because it tackles our...