07/03/2017 - This time, the director of Sweet Evil delves into the heart of Tangier in this Local Films production set to be sold abroad by UDI

The first clapperboard will slam on 29 March in Morocco for Nomades, the second feature by Olivier Coussemacq, who made a splash with Sweet Evil [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] (in competition at Karlovy Vary in 2010, earning Anaïs Demoustier the Best Actress Award in the process). The cast of this new opus includes Jalila Talemsi (who was awarded for her performance in Androman: de sang et de charbon and recently appeared in the series Midnight Sun).

Written by the director, the story is set in modern-day Tangier. Widow Naïma has brought up her three boys on her own. With a strength born of despair and the love that only an Arab mother can possess, she tries her best to hold on to the last of her children, Hossein, whose one and only dream is to head for the El Dorado that is Europe, just like the eldest of his brothers, Mohamed – who is behind bars in France because he couldn’t produce any papers – or like his other sibling, Abdessamad, who will end up drowning as he attempts to cross the Mediterranean. But it is a one-sided battle. With a 15-year-old boy’s dreams filling his head, Hossein will find a way out, by hook or by crook.

Produced by Nicolas Brévière for Local Films (which previously partnered up with the director for his feature debut), with A Perte De Vue (Colette Quesson) on board as executive co-producer, Nomades is being co-produced by Moroccan outfit Awman Productions. Having secured backing from the CNC, the Brittany region and the Moroccan Film Centre, the film is being sold abroad by UDI, while negotiations are under way to decide on the French distributor. The shoot will wrap on 26 April.

For the record, Local Films has produced two films by Jean-Gabriel Périot: Summer Lights [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] (presented in the New Directors section at last year’s San Sebastián) and the documentary A German Youth [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (which was screened in Panorama Dokumente at the 2015 Berlinale, was awarded at Visions du Réel the same year and was nominated for the César Award in its respective category in 2016). The Paris-based outfit also has the co-production of The Apostate [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Federico Veiroj (which won a Special Mention at San Sebastián in 2015) under its belt, in addition to titles such as Zouzou [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Blandine Lenoir (2014), Chez nous c'est trois! [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Claude Duty (2013), On the Shore [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Julien Donada (2012), Donne-moi la main [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Pascal-Alex Vincent (in competition at Turin in 2008) and the docu-fiction Substitute [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Fred Poulet and Vikash Dhorasoo (Berlinale Forum in 2007). 

(Translated from French)