04/04/2025 - The director is gearing up to commence filming on his second fiction feature, which is a period drama set during Vichy France

Actor Swann Arlaud (© Fabrizio de Gennaro/Cineuropa)

Tuesday 15 April will see filming begin on Notre salut, the second feature film by Emmanuel Marre who first turned heads with his short and medium-length films (Castle to Castle, awarded the Pardino d’Oro for Best Short Film in Locarno 2018, and Le Film de l’été, which won the Jean Vigo Prize in 2017) before confirming his talent via his debut feature Zero Fucks Given [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Emmanuel Marre and Julie Le…
film profile], which he co-directed with Julie Lecoustre and which was selected for Cannes’ Critics’ Week, where it scooped the Gan Foundation’s Broadcasting Prize. His movies are fuelled by real life and the writing process continues on set as the result of a very specific filmmaking approach.

The director’s second feature sees him delving into a dense and complex family history, drawing on his own grandfather’s story. It begins at the beginning of September in 1940. Henri Marre arrives in Vichy alone without any acquaintances and hoping to make a place for himself in the new regime. In his suitcase lies his political manuscript, Notre salut [Our Health] which he intends to publish. Henri wants to help save France from collapse, though it might primarily be himself that he’s hoping to save from his own personal collapse… The film explores a chunk of French history which is rarely placed under the spotlight, or seen through the eyes of subordinates who remain in the shadows in photographs, unseen in the background.

To play the part of this ordinary hero – or even antihero - Emmanuel Marre has chosen Swann Arlaud (revealed to the masses in Bloody Milk [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Hubert Charuel
film profile], which won him the Best Actor César before he went on to win two Best Supporting Actor trophies for By the Grace of God [+see also:
film review
trailer
Q&A: François Ozon
film profile] and Anatomy of a Fall [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Justine Triet
film profile], and seen in Sundance this year in Sukkwan Island [+see also:
film review
film profile]). Starring alongside him is Belgian actress Sandrine Blancke (who scooped the Magritte Award for Love According to Dalva [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Emmanuelle Nicot
interview: Emmanuelle Nicot, Julie Esp…
film profile]). The director is also reuniting with some of the team who previously proved their worth on Zero Fucks Given: the ever-loyal Olivier Boonjing on cinematography, Anna Falguères on set design, Prunelle Rulesn on costumes and Nicolas Rumpl in charge of editing. Filming will proceed until 6 June in Limoges, Vichy and Brussels.

Notre salut is being produced by Alice Lemaire and Sebastien Andres on behalf of Michigan Films (Belgium) and Alexandre Perrier for Kidam (France), who are continuing their long-term relationship with the director, having previously worked on his short films and, in more recent years, on Aya [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Simon Coulibaly Gillard
film profile], It’s Raining in the House [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Paloma Sermon-Daï
film profile] (awarded the French Touch Prize in Cannes’ Critics’ Week) and Jahia’s Summer [+see also:
film review
film profile]. The film enjoys backing from Canal+, France Télévisions, the Wallonia Brussels Federation Film and Audiovisual Centre, the CNC, Europe Creative Media, RTBF, Be TV, Proximus, Inver Invest (Tax Shelter) and the Nouvelle Aquitaine Region.

(Translated from French)