Shooting underway on Les Baronnes by Nabil Ben Yadir and Mokhtaria Badaoui
- 15 years on from the release of his hit first feature, Les Barons, the Belgian filmmaker is offering up a sequel co-directed by his mother
Nabil Ben Yadir is in the throes of filming his latest feature, Les Baronnes, which he devised in league with his mother, Mokhtaria Badaoui.
In 2009, no-one or almost no-one had seen the young Belgian filmmaker coming, armed with Les Barons [+see also:
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interview: Nabil Ben Yadir
film profile], an irresistible comedy and love letter to his Brussels neighbourhood which followed a gang of down and out young men struggling with adulthood, and a film as sharp and funny as its protagonists which brought together the Moroccan community in Belgium and far beyond. The director has since turned to other genres, in the form of La Marche [+see also:
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interview: Nabil Ben Yadir
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interview: Nabil Ben Yadir
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But for several years, an idea had been forming in Mokhtaria Badaoui’s head, who’d noticed that mothers and grandmothers were pretty much non-existent in Les Barons. So, she devised another story, involving Baronnes or ‘Baronesses’ aged 60 years and over, which Nabil Ben Yadir co-wrote with Stéphane Malandrin.
The story is that of 65-year-old Fatima whose world collapses when she learns her husband has been leading a double life in Morocco for the past dozen years. Furious and determined not to be outdone by fate, she decides to pick up where she left off 50 years earlier, when she was supposed to play Hamlet. Together with her fellow "Baronnes" - her best friends Mériem, Romaissa and Inès, three other grandmothers from Molenbeek – she makes a decision which will shake up their lives, the lives of those around them, their neighbourhood and the entire country.
The brilliant French actress Saadia Bentaieb plays Fatima, having previously starred in the staggering Belgian film Ghost Tropic [+see also:
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film profile]. Joining Bentaieb are a host of new female faces appearing on screen for the first time, as well as the formidable Flemish actor Jan Decleir who helped shore up Les Barons playing the part of grocer Lucien.
The film will be punctuated by dances and musical scenes, set to be directed by the great Belgian choreographer Sidi Larbi Ckerkaoui, who was recently credited for Rebel [+see also:
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Les Baronnes is being produced by 10.80 films, a company created by the director himself with his partner in crime Benoît Roland (who is also very active in his other production company, Wrong Men). The movie is co-produced by Samsa Films (Luxembourg), A Team Productions (Belgium), Komoko and Special Touch Studio (France). It has secured backing from the Wallonia-Brussels Federation Film and Audiovisual Centre, Film Fund Luxembourg, Vlaams Audiovisueel Fonds, Screen Brussels, BNP Paribas Film Finances, RTBF, Proximus, VOO & BETV, VRT, TV5 Monde and Creative Europe. Cinéart are set to distribute the film in the Benelux countries.
(Translated from French)
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