13/01/2022 - Arthur Harari’s movie is named Best French Film of 2021 while Aurélien Vernhes-Lermusiaux’s Towards the Battle is crowned Best First Film

Onoda by Arthur Harari

Decided upon by a jury of critics and well-known names from the world of the 7th art, and under the leadership of Gilles Jacob, the very prestigious Louis-Delluc Award for the Best French Film of 2021 was won by Arthur Harari’s Onoda – 10,000 Nights in the Jungle [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Arthur Harari
film profile].

Unveiled in the opening slot of the Un Certain Regard section, unspooling within the 74th Cannes Film Festival, the filmmaker’s second feature film after Dark Inclusion [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Arthur Harari
film profile] (2016) was shot in its entirety in Asia, and in the Japanese language. Written by Arthur Harari himself and Vincent Poymiro, this international co-production (involving France, Germany, Belgium and Italy) looks back on the fate of Lieutenant Hiroo Onoda who made his way to Lubang Island (in the Philippines) in 1945 with a view to countering the American offensive. Japan eventually surrenders, but Onoda ploughs on. Trained to survive in the jungle at all costs and blindly refusing to believe in the end of the Second World War, he pursues his battle for 10,000 days… With production outsourced to Nicolas Anthomé (one of the European Film Promotion’s 2018 Producers on the Move – read our interview) on behalf of bathysphere, Onoda – 10,000 Nights in the Jungle was distributed in French cinemas by Le Pacte, who are also steering international sales.

The Louis-Delluc Award for Best First Film was likewise won by a work unfurling on another continent and in former times, in the form of Towards the Battle [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Aurélien Vernhes-Lermusiaux. The story explores the savage years of the 1860s in Mexico, following in the wake of a Parisian photographer who has been granted permission to cover the war led on the ground by French troops. Distributed in France by Rezo Films, Towards the Battle is produced by Julien Naveau on behalf of Noodles Production - in co-production with Colombia’s Imaginaria Cine - and is sold worldwide by Be for Films.

(Translated from French)