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RELEASES France

Freedom, the Roma and the Righteous in Nazi-occupied France

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"I’d wanted to make a film about the holocaust of the Romani people ever since I started working in cinema (…), to understand why a man or woman decides one day to save some gypsies." This is how Tony Gatlif ended up making Freedom [+see also:
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(see news), which won the Grand Prize of the Americas at the latest Montreal Film Festival and is being released in French theatres today by UGC. It stars French actor Marc Lavoine, Canadian actress Marie-Josée Croze and Switzerland’s James Thiérrée.

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"During the Second World War, the Romani people were locked up and massacred with the consent of all countries, with the notable exception of Bulgaria" said the director of Exiles (Best Director at Cannes 2004).

"Even today, very few people know this history and don’t try to understand the problems of this people of 10 million scattered across Europe, who seem to float around in extreme poverty (…) The French law of 1912 which made it compulsory for all Romani people to carry anthropometric record cards and the Vichy laws banning nomadism led to the internment of gypsies in 40 concentration camps on French territory. This hatred resulted in the extermination of hundreds of thousands of Romani people by the Nazis".

This week’s 11 other new releases include Merzak Allouache’s French/Algerian feature Harragas [+see also:
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, which was unveiled in Venice Days (see review and video interview - distributed by Jour2Fête); and Danish director Lone Scherfig’s UK production An Education [+see also:
film review
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, which is vying for the Oscars for Best Film, Best Actress and Best Adapted Screenplay (distributed by Metropolitan Filmexport).

The line-up also includes three French debut features: Valérie Donzelli’s The Queen of Hearts, which won an award at the Premiers Plans Film Festival in Angers (distributed by Shellac); Myriam Aziza’s La Robe du Soir (“The Evening Dress”, Zelig Films Distribution - see news); and Darielle Tillon’s A New Ice Age (Blue Monday Distribution - see news); as well as Robert Ménard’s Canadian/French co-production A Happy Man (Rezo Films); and Hervé Renoh’s French comedy Coursier [+see also:
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(“Courier”, EuropaCorp Distribution).

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(Translated from French)

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