03/10/2024 - Sara Giraudeau, Driss Ramdi, Carole Bouquet and Olivier Rabourdin are starring in the second feature film - produced by Tessalit and sold by Pyramide - by the director rewarded at Cannes in 2018

Actress Sara Giraudeau (© Julien Vallon) and actor Driss Ramdi

Awarded the Un Certain Regard trophy for Best Screenplay in 2018 thanks to Sofia [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Meryem Benm'Barek
film profile], Meryem Benm'Barek has been in Tanger shooting her second opus, Behind the Palm Trees, since 16 September.

Leading the cast of the movie are Sara Giraudeau (awarded 2018’s Best Supporting Role César for Bloody Milk [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Hubert Charuel
film profile], famous worldwide for the series The Bureau [+see also:
interview: Frédéric Lavigne
series profile], starring in Jim’s Story [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Arnaud and Jean-Marie Larrieu
film profile] and Sur un fil this year, which is hitting French cinemas on 30 October) and Driss Ramdi (recently acclaimed in Escape from Raqqa [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] and A Decent Man [+see also:
trailer
film profile]).

They’re joined by Carole Bouquet (awarded the Best Actress César in 1990 via Trop belle pour toi and recently at her best in the series La maison), Olivier Rabourdin (nominated for 2011’s Best Supporting Role César thanks to Of Gods and Men [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Xavier Beauvois
film profile], and recently well-received in Last Summer [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Catherine Breillat
film profile] and The Other Laurens [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Claude Schmitz
film profile]), Rachel O’Meara (recently glimpsed in the British series Insomnia) and Nadia Kounda (Volubilis [+see also:
trailer
interview: Faouzi Bensaïdi
film profile]).

Written by the director herself, the story follows Mehdi who leads an exemplary life with his family and his new girlfriend, Selma. Everything is going wonderfully for the young couple, until Mehdi makes the acquaintance of Marie, a French expat who enjoys a high-society lifestyle… According to the filmmaker, the story "presents itself as a romance but slowly slides into a psychological thriller with a crepuscular atmosphere", because "wider history", speaking to the relationships of domination which still exist between Morocco and France, also plays its part.

Behind the Palm Trees is produced by Jean Bréhat on behalf of Parisian firm Tessalit Productions in co-production with French outfits Furyo Films (Emma Binet – who’s also in charge of executive production) and Chi-Fou-Mi, alongside Moroccan firm Agora Films (Souad Lamriki), Belgium’s Novak Prod (Olivier Dubois) and UK's The Bureau (Tristan Goligher). The movie has been pre-purchased by Ciné+ and TV5, and is further supported by The Moroccan Film Centre, the Fonds Image de la Francophonie, the British Film Institute (BFI) and Global Screen Fund, to name but four . It will be shot in Tanger until 16 October with Belgian Son Doan (Sofia, Viet and Nam [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile]) heading up photography. International sales and distribution in France are entrusted to Pyramide.

For the record, Tessalit recently co-produced Scandar Copti’s Happy Holidays [+see also:
film review
interview: Scandar Copti
film profile] (awarded the Orizzonti Prize for Best Screenplay in Venice and which Nour Films are due to release in French cinemas next year), they’re overseeing post-production on Sylvain Estibal’s Papamobile and they’re due to shoot Bruno Dumont’s Les Roches Rouges next year, alongside Ziad Doueiri’s Ghost Element (working title).

(Translated from French)