07/01/2025 - Reda Kateb, Sara Giraudeau, Bastien Bouillon and Pierre Lottin star in this Le Bureau and Les Compagnons du Cinéma production

l-r: Actors Reda Kateb (© Georges Biard), Sara Giraudeau (© Georges Biard), Bastien Bouillon and Pierre Lottin

Monday 6 January saw filming kick off on L’Affaire Bojarski, Jean-Paul Salomé’s tenth feature, after Belphegor: Phantom of the Louvre, Arsène Lupin (nominated for the Best Wardrobe César in 2005), Female Agents [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (nominated for the same award in 2009), Playing Dead [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] (nominated for the Magritte for Best Foreign Film in Co-Production in 2015), Mama Weed [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (nominated for 2021’s Best Adapted Screenplay César) and The Sitting Duck [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Jean-Paul Salomé
film profile] (unveiled in Venice’s 2022 Orizzonti line-up), to name but six.

Stealing focus up front in the cast are Reda Kateb (nominated for the 2018 and 2020 Best Actor Césars thanks to Django [+see also:
film review
trailer
Q&A: Etienne Comar
film profile] and The Specials [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], and triumphant in the Best Supporting Role category in 2015 via Hippocrate), Sara Giraudeau (awarded the Best Supporting Role César in 2018 thanks to Bloody Milk [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Hubert Charuel
film profile], known around the world for the series The Bureau [+see also:
interview: Frédéric Lavigne
series profile], well-received last year in Jim’s Story [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Arnaud and Jean-Marie Larrieu
film profile] and due to appear in the 2025 title Derrière les palmiers), Bastien Bouillon (the recipient of 2023’s Best Newcomer César and nominated for the Best Actor Lumière via The Night of the 12th [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Dominik Moll
film profile], and recently acclaimed in The Count of Monte-Cristo [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] and Monsieur Aznavour [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile]) and Pierre Lottin (claiming the Best Supporting Role trophy in San Sebastian, nominated for this year’s Acting Revelation Lumière thanks to When Fall is Coming [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], and also at his absolute best in The Marching Band [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Emmanuel Courcol
film profile] last year).

Likewise in on the action are Camille Japy (hitting cinemas on 5 March via In the Nguyen Kitchen [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Stéphane Ly-Cuong
film profile]), Lolita Chammah (recently seen in Consent [+see also:
film review
film profile] and Caravaggio’s Shadow [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile]), Olivier Loustau (Synonyms [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Nadav Lapid
film profile], The Boss’s Daughter [+see also:
trailer
film profile]), Quentin Dolmaire (nominated for 2016’s Best Newcomer César via My Golden Days [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] and also at his best in Spare Keys [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile]) and Arthur Teboul (The Great Magic [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile]).

Written by the director together with Bastien Daret based on an original idea by Marie-Pierre Huster, the story charts how young Polish refugee Jan Bojarski became the biggest counterfeiter of all time, the "Cézanne of fake money", in post-war France; how, for over fifteen years and unbeknownst to his family, this man led a double life making counterfeit money - which was “more real” than the notes printed by the Bank of France - in a shed at the bottom of his garden; and how, in all these years, this unparalleled faker managed to slip through the police’s net to become the thorn in Commissioner Mattei’s side, over the course of a hunt which fast turned into a duel for these two obsessives…

L’Affaire Bojarski is being produced by Bertrand Faivre on behalf of Le Bureau and by Florence Gastaud for Les Compagnons du Cinéma, in co-production with France 2 Cinéma, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Cinéma, Cactus Prod and Belgium’s Artemis Productions. Pre-purchased by Canal+, Ciné+, France Télévisions, BeTV and Proximus, the feature film also enjoys support from the Île-de-France region, as well as from the SOFICA companies Indéfilms, Palatine Etoile and Cofinova. The 43-day film shoot, beginning 6 January and ending 7 March, is unfolding in Paris and the surrounds, as well as in Vichy and in Lyon, with Julien Hirsch (awarded the 2007 César in his category for Lady Chatterley [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] and nominated for The Minister [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Pierre Schoeller
film profile] in 2012) heading up photography. Distribution in France will fall to Le Pacte.

For the record, Le Bureau will also be releasing Fabienne Godet’s Le répondeur [+see also:
film review
film profile] in cinemas on 4 June.

(Translated from French)