28/11/2024 - Next January, the Belgian filmmaker will shoot his second feature, which will offer the French musician his first big film role

In late January will begin the shoot of Vigilante, Olivier Pairoux’s second feature, a dark and tense thriller inspired by the phenomenon of vigilantes, these Internet users who pretend to be children on social media in order to trap paedophiles. This project therefore constitutes a change of register and atmosphere for the Belgian director, who was noticed in 2021 for his debut feature, SpaceBoy [+see also:
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interview: Olivier Pairoux
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The mood will be much darker for Vigilante. The film will follow Morville, a lonely thirty-something, exhausted by a system that has abandoned him. Determined to go his own way, he becomes Vigilante, a neo-vigilante (indeed) who has tasked himself with exposing and ruining the lives of paedophiles hanging around social networks. When one of his friends, also a Vigilante, is brutally attacked, Morville decides once again to take justice into his own hands. He dives into an even darker world, which will bring him face to face with former preys and with the police, who despise people like him. Faced with the collateral damage of his actions, Morville will have to deal with the moral questions that his vision of justice brings up.

The leading role will be played by Eddy De Pretto, for whom this will be the first big film role. After starting out by acting in a few commercials and short films, the young artist exploded in late 2017 with his first EP, titled Kid, a mix of hip hop and French variety music with very personal and memorable lyrics. After releasing three albums, he is therefore returning to his first love for acting with this bitter and intense part. Beside him, we will see French actress Roxane Mesquida (seen recently in the series Now Apocalypse, and this year in Fotogenico [+see also:
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interview: Serge Bozon
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Vigilante is produced by Annabella Nezri, the founder of Kwassa Films, which had already developed and produced the filmmaker’s debut feature. Kwassa will release Filles du Ciel, the debut feature by Belgian filmmaker and actress Bérangère McNeese, in 2025, and recently co-produced Rabia [+see also:
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film profile] by Mareike Engelhardt, currently in French cinemas, and Young Hearts [+see also:
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interview: Anthony Schatteman
film profile] by Anthony Schatteman, presented this year in the Generation section at the Berlinale and which will come out in Belgium in late December. Vigilante is co-produced in Canada by Art & Essais, and in France by Paprika Films. The project has received support from the Centre du Cinéma et de l’Audiovisuel de la Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles, Proximus, VOO, BeTV, MEDIA Europe Creative, Wallimage and the SODEC.

(Translated from French)