11/03/2024 - Samir Guesmi and Mouna Soualem also star in Akihiro Hata’s debut feature film, which is produced by Good Fortune Films, sold by WTFilms and on which filming began today

The first clapperboard slammed today on Grand Ciel, which is the debut feature film by Akihiro Hata, a filmmaker who was born in Japan, who graduated from the Paris-based school La Fémis and who has notably turned heads with his medium-length movies Les Invisibles and À la chasse, which were discovered in Clermont-Ferrand’s national competition in 2015 and 2017 respectively.

Stand-out names in the cast include Damien Bonnard (nominated for the 2020 and 2022 Best Actor Césars thanks to Les Misérables [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Ladj Ly
film profile] and The Restless [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Joachim Lafosse
film profile], and hitting screens this year in Les trois amies, Reine mère, Niki, Le chemin du serpent and Le Système Victoria), Samir Guesmi (nominated for 2013’s Best Supporting Actor César via Camille Rewinds [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], recently well-received in After the Fire [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile]) and Mouna Soualem (at her very best in the series Oussekine and in The Night of the 12th [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Dominik Moll
film profile]).

Likewise in on the action are Romania’s Tudor-Aaron Istodor (named the European Film Promotion’s Shooting Star of 2017 and Best Actor at Les Arcs in 2016, as well as being nominated for the 2018 Best Actor Gopo via The Fixer [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Adrian Sitaru
interview: Tudor Aaron Istodor
film profile]), Ahmed Abdel-Laoui (The Specials [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], Just Kids [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Anamaria Vartolomei
interview: Christophe Blanc
film profile]), the Norwegian actor of Burkinabe origins Issaka Sawadogo (Io Capitano [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], Night of the Kings [+see also:
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trailer
interview: Philippe Lacôte
film profile]), Luxembourg’s Sophie Mousel (of the series Capitani) and Denis Eyriey (notably seen in November [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile]).

Written by Akihiro Hata himself together with Jérémie Dubois (who co-wrote the multiple-award-winning Filipino movie Whether the Weather Is Fine [+see also:
trailer
film profile]) in collaboration with Camille Lugan, the story follows Vincent who works the night shift on the Grand Ciel building site, which is set to be a futuristic district. When a worker disappears, Vincent and his colleagues suspect the team leader of hiding the body somewhere on site. But Vincent is soon party to strange manifestations, and another worker disappears…

Grand Ciel is produced by Clément Duboin on behalf of Parisian firm Good Fortune Films, in co-production with Gilles Chanial for Les Films Fauves (Luxembourg). Pre-purchased by Canal+ and Ciné+, the feature film also enjoys support from the CNC (via an advance on receipts, the digital visual effects facility and the Images de la Diversité fund), the Île-de-France region, the Film Fund Luxembourg, the Creative Media Europe Co-Development initiative, the SOFICA companies Cinémage and Cofimage, Pictanovo (in the form of a development grant) and Normandie Images (via a re-writing grant).

The 31-day film shoot wrapping on 26 April is unfolding in Île-de-France, Moselle and Luxembourg with David Chizallet (awarded the Lumière in his speciality and nominated for the 2016 César thanks to Mustang [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Deniz Gamze Ergüven
film profile]) heading up photography. Editing will be managed by Suzana Pedro (The Rapture [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Iris Kaltenbäck
film profile], Àma Gloria [+see also:
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interview: Marie Amachoukeli
film profile], Love According To Dalva [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Emmanuelle Nicot
interview: Emmanuelle Nicot, Julie Esp…
film profile]), UFO Distribution will oversee the film’s release in French cinemas, and WTFilms will handle international sales.

For the record, Good Fortune Films have recently offered up Cidade; Campo [+see also:
film review
film profile] by Brazil’s Juliana Rojas (awarded the Encounters’ Best Director Prize at the most recent Berlinale) and have also co-produced German director Ulrich Köhler’s upcoming movie Gavagai.

(Translated from French)