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PRODUCTION Belgium

Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah shooting their hard-hitting new film Gangsta

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- In the wake of Black’s success in autumn 2015, the two Antwerp-based directors are back with a new movie that is every bit as energetic but has an added dash of humour

Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah shooting their hard-hitting new film Gangsta
Directors Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah

In 2015, Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah, whose debut film, Image [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
, had already made a splash among professionals, took the Belgian media and general public by surprise when they released Black [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fal…
interview: Martha Canga Antonio
film profile
]
, a kind of remastered Romeo and Juliette set against the backdrop of gang warfare, offering an image of Brussels that had not previously often been seen on film. After an excursion to the USA, the pair of directors is back with a new Belgian project, Gangsta [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fal…
interview: Matteo Simoni
film profile
]
, which is currently being filmed in and around Antwerp. 

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And so this time, the action unfolds in the aforementioned Belgian port city. In it, we follow Adamo, a young Moroccan-Italian man living in Belgium. He lost his parents at the age of six, and it was his uncle Farid, a friend of his father’s, who took him under his wing and into his family. Flanked by his three inseparable buddies, Badia, Younes and Volt, who are also from the ‘t Kiel’ neighbourhood in Antwerp, they are willing to do whatever it takes to become legendary gangsters. They rush headlong into full-on gang warfare, allowing themselves to get caught up in a whirlwind of crime that has repercussions as far away as Colombia. The film is once again being produced by A Team Productions, and co-produced by 10:80 Films, the company set up by Nabil Ben Yadir (Blind Spot [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Nabil Ben Yadir
film profile
]
, La Marche [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Nabil Ben Yadir
film profile
]
, Les Barons [+see also:
film review
trailer
Interview with director and actress of…
interview: Nabil Ben Yadir
film profile
]
) and Benoît Roland (of Wrong Men Production).

“It’s a mix between Les Barons, Goodfellas and La Haine,” says Adil El Arbi. Incidentally, the screenplay was co-written by Nabil Ben Yadir, and El Arbi claims to have been influenced by the first film by the French-speaking director: “Gangsta is a bit like a Flemish Les Barons!” The cast includes Mattéo Simoni, who has appeared in such films as Marina [+see also:
trailer
interview: Cristiano Bortone
film profile
]
and The Sum of Histories [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
, young actress Nora Gharib, as well as dancer Junes Lazaar and rapper-actor Said Boumazoughe. The movie will be released in Belgium by Kinepolis.

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(Translated from French)

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