28/05/2010

In Paris, the first week of shooting has wrapped on Régis Wargnier’s eighth feature La Ligne Droite (“The Straight Line”).

The director previously won the 1993 Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film for Indochina and was selected in competition at Berlin in 2005 with Man to Man. Now, after a foray into thrillers (Have Mercy On Us All [+see also:
trailer
film profile] – 2007), Wargnier is working on a drama starring Rachida Brakni (State Affairs [+see also:
trailer
film profile]) and Cyril Descours (Complices [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Frédéric Mermoud
film profile]). The cast also includes Clémentine Célarié, Seydina Baldé and Thierry Godard.

Scripted by the director, La Ligne Droite focuses on two broken lives. Leïla regains her freedom after five years in prison, and meets Yannick, a young athlete who has just lost his sight in an accident.

Running is the only sport he can still practise with his disability, but only when attached by a rope to a guide. Leïla, herself a former high-level athlete, will be his guide.

Leïla keeps quiet about her past and Yannick, stifled by his friends’ and family’s gestures of compassion, accepts this silence. Training and competition plans help them to rebuild their lives together.

But there are pasts that won’t go away, and present feelings and heart stirrings that completely change one’s path, and one day lead to the straight road.

La Ligne Droite is produced by Sidonie Dumas for Gaumont (who will also handle French distribution and international sales) in co-production with France 2 Cinéma. The film – whose eight-week shoot includes one week in Brittany – is scheduled to be released domestically on March 9, 2011.

(Translated from French)