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PRODUCTION / FUNDING France / Belgium / Italy / Poland

Giacomo Abbruzzese is shooting Disco Boy

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- Franz Rogowski, Morr N’Diaye and Laetitia Ky headline this production piloted by Films Grand Huit with Belgium, Italy and Poland, and sold by Charades

Giacomo Abbruzzese is shooting Disco Boy
(from left to right): Actress Laetitia Ky and actors Franz Rogowski and Morr N’Diaye

Monday 13 September saw the start of shooting of Disco Boy [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Giacomo Abbruzzese
film profile
]
, the first feature film by Italian director Giacomo Abbruzzese (a graduate of the French school of Fresnoy, who has received considerable attention for his short films, notably Stella Marris, and who has also been a member of the Cinefondation residency at the Cannes Film Festival), which won the Arte Development Prize at the Arcs Film Festival's Village of Coproductions.

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The cast includes German actor Franz Rogowski (seen in Transit [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Christian Petzold
interview: Franz Rogowski
film profile
]
and Ondine [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Christian Petzold
film profile
]
, and this year in Great Freedom [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Sebastian Meise
film profile
]
and Freaks Out [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Gabriele Mainetti
film profile
]
), Gambian actor Morr N'Diaye (discovered in the documentary Tumaranké) and the Ivorian feminist influencer activist and model Laetitia Ky (Night of the Kings [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Philippe Lacôte
film profile
]
). Other standouts include Croatian Leon Lucev (seen at Cannes in Murina [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Antoneta Alamat Kusijanović
interview: Gracija Filipovic
film profile
]
),
Italian Matteo Olivetti, Pole Robert Wieckiewcz and Belgian Mutamba Kalonji.

Written by the director, the screenplay follows two destinies at odds with each other. After a painful journey through Europe, Alex, the Belarusian, joins the Foreign Legion in France and clings to a confused hope of a European identity. Jomo, the Nigerian, fights for the survival and durability of his people in the Niger Delta and is ready to die to defend his ideas. These two young people who are sacrificed and smashed together will, against all odds, meet and their destinies will merge to continue across borders, bodies, life and death...

Produced by Lionel Massol and Pauline Seigland for the Brittany company Films Grand Huit (whose credits include the 2019 César for Best Short Film for Les petites mains), Disco Boy is co-produced in France by Division (Arno Moria) and Stromboli Films (Juliette Sol), in Belgium by Panache Productions (André Logie), in Italy by Dugong Films (Giulia Achili and Marco Alessi) and in Poland by Donten & Lacroix (Maria Blicharska). Pre-purchased by Canal+ and Ciné+, the feature film also benefits from the support of the CNC (via an advance on receipts and an aid to visual or sound creation), the support fund for Franco-Italian co-productions (associating the CNC and the MiBAC), Eurimages, the regions of Ile-de-France and Ile de la Réunion, the Breizh Film Fund, Sofica Cinemage, Cineaxe and Arte Cofinova, the Wallonia-Brussels fund and Movie Tax Invest, the Polish Film Institute and the Podkarpackie region.

The 33 days of filming will take place until 9 October in Ile-de-France, then from 12 to 15 October in Poland (in the lower Carpathians) and finally from 20 to 29 October on the island of Reunion, with Frenchwoman Hélène Louvart (who worked on the films presented this year, Murina and The Lost Daughter [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
) as director of photography. Also noteworthy are the participation of Nigerian choreographer Qudus Onikeku and French composer Vitalic (world-renowned in electronic music).

Disco Boy will be distributed in France by KMBO and sold internationally by Charades.

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(Translated from French by Manuela Lazic)

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