27/05/2024 - Filmmaker Catherine Cosme just started shooting her first fiction feature, produced by Hélicotronc and co-produced by Tripode Productions and Alva Films

Actress Vimala Pons (© Charlotte Bovy) and actor Yoann Zimmer

The shoot of Sauvons les meubles, Catherine Cosme’s first feature, started this past 21 May. The filmmaker was noticed for her first two short films. Les Amoureuses (2015) told the surprising story of three women of different ages –a mother, her teenage daughter, and her little girl– who, during one summer, all fall in love with the same man. Famille (2018) followed the questioning of a single mother who welcomes a Somalian family in her home as they await regularisation. But Catherine Cosme is also renowned for her work as artistic director, for instance with Belgian filmmaker Stephan Streker (notably on his films A Wedding [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Stephan Streker
film profile] and The Enemy [+see also:
film review
interview: Stephan Streker
film profile]), as well as for her set design (on Lola [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Laurent Micheli
film profile] by Laurent Micheli, for which she won a Cinema Magritte award in 2020, and on Love According to Dalva [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Emmanuelle Nicot
interview: Emmanuelle Nicot, Julie Esp…
film profile] by Emmanuelle Nicot, as well as on the latest film by Stéphane Demoustier, Borgo [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile]), and her costume work (on Our Men [+see also:
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trailer
interview: Rachel Lang
film profile] by Rachel Lang or Scouting for Zebras [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Benoit Mariage).

With Sauvons les meubles, she returns to the themes already present in her short films, namely the family and siblings. The film centres on Lucile and Paul, in their forties, who are called back home to their parents because their mother is dying. They were not aware of her illness, but also discover another secret: their mother has usurped Lucile’s identity and fallen deeply into debt. In this emergency, before their mother passes away, Lucile and Paul will have to find their way to forgiveness and save a lot more than just the furniture.

Playing Lucile and Paul respectively are French actress Vimala Pons (seen recently in Vincent Must Die [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Stéphan Castang
film profile] as well as The (in)famous Youssef Salem) and Belgian actor Yoann Zimmer (recently nominated at the Magritte award for his turn in Return to Seoul [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Davy Chou
film profile]). Also starring alongside them are another Belgian comedian, Jean-Luc Piraux, playing the father, as well as French actress Guilaine Londez.

The film, which shoots until 19 June, is produced by Julie Esparbes for Hélicotronc, who recently made Love According to Dalva and co-produced Ghost Trail [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Jonathan Millet
interview: Pauline Seigland
film profile], which opened Critics’ Week this year in Cannes. Sauvons les meubles is co-produced in France by Tripode Productions, who thus continues its fruitful collaboration with the Belgian outfit after already co-producing Dalva, but also The (Ex)perience of Love [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Ann Sirot & Raphael Balboni
film profile]. The film is also co-produced in Switzerland by Alva Films. It has received support from the Fédération Wallonie -Bruxelles (light productions fund), Be TV, the RTBF, Proximus, the Tax Shelter via Shelter Prod, the Loterie nationale, the Région Occitanie and the Office Fédéral de la Culture suisse.

(Translated from French)