After his 2007 debut feature thriller (Melody’s Smile [trailer]), Alfred Lot continues to explore literary adaptations with Une Petite Zone de Turbulences, which he is currently shooting in the Ile-de-France region.

Based on UK writer Mark Haddon’s novel Spot of Bother, the film stars Michel Blanc, Miou Miou, Mélanie Doutey and Gilles Lellouche. The cast also includes Cyril Descours, Yannick Renier, Eric Caravaca, Nathalie Richard and Sophie Cattani.
Co-written by the director and Blanc, Une Petite Zone centres on recently retired Jean-Paul (Blanc), who lives with his wife Anne (Miou Miou). His marriage seems happy and his children, Cathie (Doutey) and Mathieu (Descours), are now responsible adults. But the characters’ inability to communicate with one another bring dark clouds onto this peaceful horizon, which turn into a storm.

In the novel, the father mistakenly believes he has cancer and considers suicide, the mother is having an affair with one of her husband’s former colleagues, the daughter is about to marry someone of whom the family disapproves and the homosexual son is struggling with turbulent feelings.

Produced by Yves Marmion (A SecretI’ve Loved You So Long [trailer] [trailer] and Secrets of State [trailer]) for UGC YM, Une Petite Zone has a €9.88m budget. This includes pre-sales from Canal + and Ciné Cinéma, €2m in co-production support and pre-sales from TF1 Films Production and €488,000 in backing from the Ile-de-France region.

The nine-week shoot kicked off on March 4 and will last until May 14. Domestic distribution and international sales will be handled by UGC.