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PRODUCTION France

Klotz’s Lovers face immigration and curses

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Shooting will start in Lyon on October 4 on Nicolas Klotz’s sixth narrative feature: Les Amants (“Lovers”). The politically-engaged director of Pariah (Special Jury Prize at San Sebastian in 2000), The Wound [+see also:
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(Cannes Directors’ Fortnight 2004) and Heartbeat Detector [+see also:
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film profile
]
(Cannes Directors’ Fortnight 2007) returns with a film centred on a young girl who falls in love with an illegal Afghan immigrant. An invisible force hanging over their love leads to fear, confusion and death.

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The cast includes Camille Rutherford, Arash Naimian Maud Wyler, Mathilde Bisson and Marie Kauffman.

Co-written by Klotz and Elisabeth Perceval, the film describes the love-at-first-sight encounter between Carmen (Rutherford), who leads a hectic life fuelled by sleepless nights with her friends (all in their early 20s), and Hussain (Naimian), a young Afghan poet who lives in a squat. However, for the last two years Hussain has been waiting for a response to his asylum request and the verdict arrives in a letter: he has one month to leave the country.

Having been mislaid, this letter sows death all around it in an eerie way, while Hussain and Carmen gradually cut themselves off from the world to enjoy their intense love, avoid police checks and deportation. During this time, a sort of curse leads to the unexplained deaths of policemen during checks on illegal immigrants. Captured on CCTV, Carmen is threatened with imprisonment if she refuses to inform on her lover.

Produced by Gilles Sandoz for Maïa Cinéma and producing duo Alain Guesnier and Antoine Beau for Agora Films, Les Amants is co-produced by Rhône-Alpes Cinéma and Les Films du Losange. Pre-bought by Canal + and Ciné Cinéma, the feature is also backed by the Centre region, Cofimage and Coficup.

The six-week shoot will take place in Lyon and the Centre region until mid-November. The film will be released in French theatres by Les Films du Losange, while international sales are being handled by Films Distribution.

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(Translated from French)

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