Teenagers confronted with real life in No and Me
As winter approaches and there are increasing numbers of homeless people on the streets of major French cities, Zabou Breitman has chosen to tackle this social issue through the prism of adolescence in her fourth feature: No and Me [+see also:
trailer
film profile]. Adapted from Delphine Le Vigan’s novel of the same name, the film is being launched today by Diaphana on 196 screens and will try to find its audience amid a huge bottleneck of 21 new releases.
The latest feature by the director of Try To Remember [+see also:
trailer
film profile] and Someone I Loved [+see also:
trailer
film profile] stars Nina Rodriguez, Julie-Marie Parmentier, Bernard Campan, Antonin Chalon and Breitman. It centres on the encounter and friendship between 13-year-old Lou, the only daughter of a couple suffering from depression since the death of their baby, and Nora, an unpredictable 18-year-old homeless girl.
Breitman explained: "I thought it rang very true this story of a gifted teenager, with the often violent emotional gaps sometimes seen in precocious children. A teenager who wants to save the world like all teens and at the same time her own world".
"I met some girls in No’s situation (…) A first draft of the screenplay was shown to some youth workers, people who work in charity associations and are in contact with homeless people. They helped us improve some of the dialogues (…) I then looked for some actresses (…): the contrast between these girls’ youthfulness and the harshness, the toughness of their life is fundamental. They’re not yet deeply marked, some still have baby faces.”
Produced by Epithète Films in co-production with France 3 Cinéma and pre-bought by Orange Cinéma Séries, No and Me is sold internationally by Roissy Films.
This Wednesday’s new releases also include Jean-Pierre Pozzi and Pierre Barougier’s outstanding documentary Just A Beginning (see
trailer
film profile] (see news – Memento Films Distribution on 33 screens); Pierre Vinour’s original dreamlike thriller Magma [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (see news – distributed by Les Enragés); Julien Baillargeon’s Opération 118318, Sévices Clients (“Operation 118318, Client Abuse”, Artédis); and Fouad Benhammou’s horror film The Village of Shadows [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (DistriB Films on 136 screens).
Other European releases are Sergey Loznitsa’s fascinating My Joy [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] (in competition at Cannes – see review – distributed by ARP Sélection on 10 screens); Spanish director Oskar Santos’s For the Good of Others [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] (unveiled in the Berlinale Panorama – see review – CTV International); Emily Atef’s German feature The Stranger In Me [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] (shown in Cannes Critics’ Week 2008 – see review – Jour2Fête on five screens); and René Bo Hansen’s German/Swedish co-production Eagle Hunter’s Son (Les Films du Préau).
This Wednesday’s bumper line-up is completed by two documentaries: Luc Joulé and Sébastien Jousse’s Cheminots (“Railway Workers”, distributed by Shellac); and Raed Andoni’s Fix Me [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (Sophie Dulac Distribution).
(Translated from French)
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