17/03/2011

The investment fund Wallimage, initiated and piloted by the Walloon Region to support the audiovisual sector in Wallonia, recently celebrated its tenth anniversary. Marking the occasion, it announced that it has generated a return of almost 300% on the €33.3m invested, a return that could be estimated at 500% taking into account the hotel expenditure and tourism revenue from the film shoots financed.

At its 41st session, Wallimage selected four projects, including two Belgian productions. By coincidence, they are both prison-set love stories…Frédéric Fonteyne (Gilles’ Wife [+see also:
trailer
film profile]) is currently preparing his fourth feature, Quartier Libre (“Off Duty”), the unlikely story of a woman who visits her husband and lover who are locked up in the same cell. She also stirs the heart of their prison warden played by François Damiens, who keeps appearing in homegrown films at the moment, for he has just finished shooting Mathieu Donck’s debut flick Torpedo.

The film is produced by Artemis, in collaboration with Minds Meet in Flanders, Luxembourg’s Samsa Films and France’s Liaison Cinématographique.

In a very different style, David Lambert is preparing his debut feature, this time a jail-set love story between two musicians who are separated by prison bars. Hors les Murs (“Outside the Walls”) is produced by FraKas with backing from France’s Red Star and Canada’s Boreal Films.

On the co-production side, Wallimage is also wisely backing Pascal Chaumeil’s much-awaited next feature, following Heartbreaker [+see also:
trailer
making of
film profile], which took the box office by storm in 2010. Living Is Better Than Dying will once again star Romain Duris, Julie Ferrier and the ubiquitous Damiens, joined by a prestigious new cast member, Marion Cottillard. The film is scheduled for release in 2012.

Finally, Wallimage is also backing Hugues Lanneau’s ambitious historical project Waterloo, which will be largely based on images filmed during the latest reconstruction of the battle and will be made just in time to launch the bicentenary celebrations in 2015.

(Translated from French)