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PRODUCTION France

Jacques Audiard’s Dheepan in the starting blocks

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- The shoot for the new movie by the multi-award-winning French filmmaker is due to get under way soon, produced by Why Not and set to be distributed in France by UGC

Jacques Audiard’s Dheepan in the starting blocks
Jacques Audiard

On 13 October, Jacques Audiard will get started with the shoot for his seventh feature film: Dheepan [+see also:
film review
trailer
Q&A: Jacques Audiard
film profile
]
. Owing to production outfit Why Not’s firmly entrenched culture of secrecy, only a few small snippets of information have leaked out about the title, which will revolve around a Sri-Lankan Tamil fighter who is a political refugee in France, where he works as a caretaker on an “unruly” council estate in the Parisian suburbs. Written by the filmmaker (with Thomas Bidegain and Noé Debré), who has revealed that one of his sources of inspiration was Persian Letters by Montesquieu (1721), the story will apparently focus on culture shock and this refugee’s perception of modern-day French society. 

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The winner of the César Award for Best Debut in 1995 for See How They Fall, Jacques Audiard has taken part in the competition at Cannes three times: in 1996 with A Self Made Hero (Best Screenplay), in 2009 with A Prophet [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Jacques Audiard
interview: Jacques Audiard and Tahar R…
film profile
]
 (Grand Jury Prize; also nominated for the Oscar for Best Foreign-language Film and the winner of nine César Awards, including Best Film, Best Director, Best Writing and Best Actor) and in 2012 with Rust and Bone [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Jacques Audiard
interview: Jacques Audiard
film profile
]
. He also has Read My Lips [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
 (nominated for nine Césars in 2002 and taking home three of them, including Best Writing and Best Actress) and The Beat That My Heart Skipped [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
 (in competition at Berlin in 2005 and the winner of eight Césars in 2006, including Best Film and Best Director) to his credit.

Produced by Pascal Caucheteux for Why Not Productions, Dheepan will be co-produced by France 2 Cinéma and Page 114. The shoot will wrap on 19 December, and UGC will distribute the title in French cinemas.

Why Not, which has just seen the launch of Roschdy Zem’s Bodybuilder [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
 in theatres, and unveiled The Price of Fame [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Xavier Beauvois
film profile
]
 by Xavier Beauvois at Venice (set for a French release in January 2015) and Fidelio, l'odyssée d'Alice [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Lucie Borleteau
film profile
]
 by Lucie Borleteau at Locarno, helmed the shoot for Three Memories of Childhood by Arnaud Desplechin (read the news) and Comme un avion [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
 by Bruno Podalydès (who also stars in the film, alongside Agnès Jaoui, Sandrine Kiberlain, Denis Podalydès, Michel Vuillermoz, Samir Guesmi, Vimala Pons and Jean-Noël Brouté) this summer. The Paris-based outfit also has the US feature Blood Father by Jean-François Richet (starring Mel Gibson in the lead) in post-production.

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(Translated from French)

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