Serial impostor inspires For a Son and Chameleon

by Fabien Lemercier

04/03/2009 - The youth of France’s Frédéric Bourdin – who assumed around 30 different identities in 15 years and passed himself off as missing children – has inspired French filmmakers. Rezo Films are today launching a 29-print run of Alix de Maistre’s For a Son [trailer].

Starring Miou-Miou, Kevin Lelannier and Belgium’s Olivier Gourmet, this debut feature retraces the mysterious reappearance of Toni. Having been abducted ten years previously, he is brought back to his family by a policeman who is as haunted by the drama of the child’s disappearance as the parents themselves.

Written by the director, the film is loosely based on an episode in Bourdin’s life (his attempt to become integrated into a US family in 1997, leading to six years of imprisonment) and explores the complexity of emotional ties.

Produced by One World Films in co-production with Belgium’s Dragons Films, For a Son received pre-sales from Canal + and Ciné Cinéma, and backing from Wallimage.

Bourdin’s American hoax is also the inspiration for Jean-Paul Salomé’s first English-language film, The Chameleon, which is currently shooting in the US. Starring Canadian actor Marc-André Grondin (Cesar 2009 for Best Male Newcomer), Dutch actress Famke Janssen and Ellen Barkin, the film is co-written by the director and Natalie Carter.

Production is being handled by Paris-based Loma Nasha in collaboration with Gaumont, who will release the film in France.

Also hitting screens this Wednesday are Laurent Tuel’s thriller Inside Ring [trailer], featuring Jean Reno, Gaspard Ulliel, Sami Bouajila and Vahina Giocante (TFM Distribution on 338 screens); and Philippe Beziat’s documentary Pelléas et Mélissandre, le chant des aveugles (produced and distributed by Les Films Pelléas).

The line-up also includes three European arthouse titles: Hungarian director Kornel Mundruczo’s magnificent Delta [trailer, film focus] (distributed by Le Pacte); Kazakh filmmaker Sergey Dvortsevoy’s touching Tulpan [trailer], which won the Un Certain Regard Award at the latest Cannes Film Festival (ARP Sélection, 40 screens); and German director Dennis Gansel’s disturbing film The Wave [trailer] (see interview - Bac Films, 118 screens).

(Translated from French)