05/09/2011

The final leg of shooting is underway on the debut narrative feature by Show-Chun Lee: Shanghai-Belleville. A renowned visual artist, the France-based Taiwanese director worked as an assistant to Tsai-Ming Liang and the Larrieu brothers among others, and has made numerous documentaries about illegal immigration and investigations into modern slavery. For her first foray into fiction with a dark, dreamlike ensemble film, she has put together a cast including Antony Pho, Martial Wang, Carole Lo, Sara Ri, Jacques Boudet and Alice Yin.

Co-scripted by the director and Pierre Chosson (Rivals [+see also:
trailer
film profile]), the film opens on a pavement in Paris: Mr Zhou has fallen out of the sky by jumping from a clandestine workshop. He wants to find his wife Gin, who disappeared during a crossing to England. He meets Liwei, a Chinese man nicknamed The Croat.

Together, they set out in search of the missing woman, helped by the Pokémons, a group of manga-style youngsters who bring them some images taken from "the Net". But Zhou is drowning in his solitude and The Croat wants to discover China…

Produced by Juliette Grandmont for Clandestine Films, Shanghai-Belleville has co-production support from China Blue and a €450,000 advance on receipts from the National Film and Moving Image Centre (CNC). The project was selected by the Cinéfondation Workshop at the Cannes Film Festival, Emergence, the Angers Workshops and the Babylon writing programme at the Rotterdam Film Festival.

The film, shooting on which kicked off on July 18 and will continue until September 10, is lensed by DoP Thierry Arbogast. It will be launched in French theatres in autumn 2012 by Happiness Distribution, while international sales are still under negotiation.

(Translated from French)