09/01/2023 - Saabo Balde, Jonathan Couzinié, Aurélia Petit and Philippe Frécon are also starring in the cast of Stéphane Marchetti’s debut feature, steered by Blue Monday Productions and sold by Be For Films

Actress Florence Loiret-Caille (© Unifrance)

The first clapperboard is set to slam tomorrow on Winter Crossing, the debut fiction feature film by Stéphane Marchetti who distinguished himself in the documentary field, notably via Rafah, chroniques d’une ville dans la bande de Gaza (awarded the Golden FIPA for Major Reports and the Albert-Londres Prize), before taking part in La Fémis’ Screenplay Workshop in 2019 and in Emergence in 2021.

Stand-out names in the cast include Florence Loiret-Caille (nominated for 2010’s Best New Hope César via Someone I Loved, recently well-received in The Young Lovers, as well as in the series The Bureau, and hitting screens in Stéphane Demoustier’s new film this year), Saabo Balde (who turned countless heads in Mali Twist and who’ll be in Jean-Pascal Zadi’s series En place from 20 January on Netflix), Jonathan Couzinié (revealed in Cannes’ Critics’ Week in 2019 via Heroes Don’t Die), Aurélia Petit (recently at her best in A Tale of Love and Desire and Saint Omer) and Philippe Frécon (recently seen in Magnetic Beats, but first and foremost an accomplished theatre actor working under Joël Pommerat, among others).

Written by Stéphane Marchetti in collaboration with Laurette Polmanss (nominated for 2022’s Best Original Screenplay César thanks to The Divide, as well as for 2019’s Best Adapted Screenplay Award via An Impossible Love), the story takes us to Briançon in the Hautes-Alpes region, on the border between France and Italy, in the depths of winter. 45-year-old Marie, who has a young student daughter, is separated from her husband and gets by each month by taking on casual work on both sides of the border. But then she reconnects with Alex, an old high school acquaintance. It marks the beginning of a relationship which takes her further than she thought…

Winter Crossing is produced by Bertrand Gore on behalf of Blue Monday Productions, in co-production with Le Bureau and Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Cinéma. Pre-purchased by Canal+ and Ciné+, the feature film also enjoys backing from the Sud Paca region and from the SOFICA company Cofinova. The movie’s 29-day film shoot will include four weeks in Briançon and the surrounding area, and two weeks in Lyon, with Sébastien Goepfert (Bloody Milk, A Tale of Love and Desire) heading up photography and editing entrusted to Damien Maestraggi (A Family for 1640 Days, Beasts). Distribution in France will be steered by UFO and international sales by Be For Films.

For the record, Blue Monday Productions recently produced Léonor Serraille’s Cannes competitor Mother and Son, as well as Fogaréu by Brazil’s Flávia Neves (discovered in the Panorama section of last year’s Berlinale). They’re also overseeing the final stages of post-production on You Promised Me the Sea by Nadir Moknèche (starring Youssouf Abi-Ayad and Kenza Fortas).

(Translated from French)