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PRODUCTION France

Le crocodile du Botswanga: football, Africa, and politics

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- After the success of Case départ, Fabrice Eboué and Lionel Steketee are embarking on a new comedy with their partner in film Thomas Ngijol

On Monday January 7, shooting is to start in Paris for Le crocodile du Botswanga (lit. "The Botswanga crocodile"), Fabrice Eboué (photo) and Lionel Steketee's second comedy together after the surprise 2011 box office hit of Case départ [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
 (1.8 million admissions). The film is again to star Fabrice Eboué and Thomas Ngijol (who co-directed Case départ, but this time only as an actor), alongside Claudia Tagbo (recently spotted in Les seigneurs [+see also:
trailer
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]
 and A Lady in Paris [+see also:
film review
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).

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Written by Fabrice Eboué, the screenplay centres on Leslie Konda, a young talented French football player, discovered as a teenager by Didier, a small-time agent who was able to take him under his wing. Leslie has just signed his first contract as a striker for a major Spanish football club. But he is unable to share this with his mother who died a few months earlier and to whom he promised to take her ashes home to her village in Botswanga, Africa. At the same time, his origins earn him an invitation from the Botswangan president, a great football enthusiast who has just taken power after a military coup. Accompanied by Didier, Leslie therefore sets off to the country of his ancestors for the first time in his life, to give homage to his mother as well as to be decorated by president Bobo who, despite his humanistic speeches, rapidly turns out to be a megalomaniac paranoid dictator. They have barely arrived when already Bobo suggests that Didier persuade his player to play for the national team, one that is placed at the very bottom of the FIFA ranking: the Botswanga Crocodiles. 

Produced by Ilan Goldman for Légende (who already produced Case départ), Le crocodile du Botswanga is co-produced by M6 Films and by Mars Films (to handle the film's distribution in France). Also pre-acquired by Canal+, the film is to be shot over the course of eight weeks.

On January 16, Légende is to release Jérôme Enrico's Paulette. The production company also has the following titles in post-production: Michaël Youn's Vive la France (Youn also acts in the film - due out on February 20) and Anthony Marciano's Les gamins (with Max Boublil, Alain Chabat, Zabou Breitman, Mélanie Bernier, and Sandrine Kiberlain - due out on April 17). These three titles are to be distributed and sold internationally by Gaumont.

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(Translated from French)

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