Ile-de-France backs Free Men

01/06/2010

Eleven feature films are included in the second 2010 selection by the Ile-de-France Regional Support Fund for Technical Film and Audiovisual Industries.

Among them, €384,000 will go to Free Men by Ismaël Ferroukhi, who won the Lion of the Future Award at Venice in 2004 and a BAFTA nomination for Best Foreign Language Film in 2006 for his debut feature The Big Journey.

Starring Tahar Rahim (European Film Award 2009 and Best Actor Cesar 2010 for A Prophet [+see also:
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interview: Jacques Audiard and Tahar R…
film profile]), Ferroukhi’s new work is co-scripted by the director and Alain-Michel Blanc. It centres on a young North African worker in Paris who joins the Resistance movement during the German Occupation.

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Produced by Pyramide (who will also manage French distribution and international sales), Free Men has received co-production support from France 3 Cinéma, pre-acquisitions from Canal + and Ciné Cinéma, and an advance on receipts from the National Film and Moving Image Centre (CNC). Shooting is scheduled to last from July 19-September 30.

The Ile-de-France region will also back Philippe Garrel’s J'ai Gardé les Anges (“I’ve Kept the Angels”, Rectangle Productions – €192,000 in funding), which is set to shoot in August with a cast including Monica Bellucci and Louis Garrel; Régis Wargnier’s La Ligne Droite (“The Straight Line”, Gaumont – see news – €384,000); Raymond Depardon’s Journal de France (Palmeraie et Desert – €352,000); and Bertrand Bonello’s L'Apollonide (Les Films du lendemain – see news – €416,000).

The selection also includes Mia Hansen-Love’s Un Amour de Jeunesse (“A Youthful Love”, Les Films Pelléas – €416,000); Jean-Marc Moutout’s De Bon Matin (“Early In the Morning”, Les Films du Losange – €256,000); Fleur Albert’s Stalingrad Lovers (La Huit Production – €384,000); Nolwenn Lemesle’s Des Morceaux de Moi (“Pieces of Me”, Tokib Productions – €384,000); and two documentaries: Christian Rouaud’s Tous au Larzac (“Everybody to Larzac”, Elzevir Films – €72,000) and Sébastien Lifshitz’s Les Invisibles (“The Invisibles”, Zadig Productions – €72,000).