08/12/2006

The first of the two-week shoot near Lille (in the North on France) on Ariel Zeïtoun’s Buttes-Chaumont ended today. The film – Zeïtoun’s eighth feature – is about the Postiches gang, a group of robbers notorious in France from 1981-86 when they pulled almost 30 hold-ups.

Also co-producer with Ajoz Films, the director has brought together a cast featuring Vincent Elbaz, Gilles Lellouche (Tell No One [+see also:
trailer
film profile]), Clémence Poésy (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire) and Sami Bouajila (Days of Glory [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Jean Bréhat
interview: Rachid Bouchareb
film profile]).

1960. Three six-year old boys make their first catch when they steal ducks from a lake in the Parisian park of Buttes-Chaumont to sell them to butchers in the Belleville area. Twenty years later, they form the hardcore Postiches gang. Daring and impossible to catch, breaking into banks without unnecessary violence, made up and disguised as middle-class citizens, the members of the gang were in the media spotlight until the fatal hold-up on rue du Docteur-Blanche in the 16th arrondissement of Paris in January 1986, which ended in a shoot-out and the death of one of the gangsters and a police officer.

A spectacular adventure, co-written by Ariel Zeitoun, Daniel Saint-Hamont and Laurence Siari, the film focuses on Simon Toledano (Elbaz), the brains of the gang.

Produced by Pierre-Ange Le Pogam, Zeïtoun and Olivier Glaas for EuropaCorp, Ajoz Films and Glaski Productions, the film – which began lensing in Paris on October 9 – has a 63-day total shoot. With 46 days already complete in and around Paris, two weeks more outside Lille (Roubaix) and one week abroad remain.

The €10.5m production has already received pre-sales agreements from Canal + and CineCinema and backing of €150,000 from Crrav (Nord - Pas-de-Calais region).

Les Buttes-Chaumont opens in French cinemas in October 2007 through EuropaCorp, who are also heading international sales.

(Translated from French)