03/07/2025 - Eva Huault, Sékouba Doucouré and Noémie Lvovsky topline this production staged jointly by Ecce Films and CG Cinéma, which will be sold by Les Films du Losange

Actress Eva Huault and actor Sékouba Doucouré

After kicking off in the Paris region on 2 June, the shoot for Shana by Lila Pinell will wrap on 17 July. This is the first solo feature-length fiction film by the director, who hails from the world of documentary and who rose to prominence in Cannes’ ACID in 2017 with Kiss and Cry [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (co-directed with Chloé Mahieu and also the winner of the Best Screenplay Award at Turin that same year) and was festooned with awards in 2021 for the medium-length title King David (Jean Vigo Award in 2021 and Grand Prix in the national competition of Clermont-Ferrand in 2022), a movie that is being reimagined for her new film.

Standing out among the cast are Eva Huault (whom the director has been filming ever since her first documentary, in 2009, and who turned heads recently in Baise-en-ville [+see also:
film review
film profile] and I Swear), Sékouba Doucouré (glimpsed in films such as A Night Doctor [+see also:
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interview: Elie Wajeman
film profile]) and Noémie Lvovsky (nominated for the César Award for Best Actress in 2013 for Camille Rewinds [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] and nominated in the Best Supporting Actress category seven times since 2002; popular at Cannes in May in Love Letters [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile]). Also among the cast are Inès Trabendo, Agnès Host, Inès Anane, Jacky Abdillah and Lalla Rami.

Written by Lila Pinell in conjunction with Catherine Paillé (nominated for the Lumière Award for Best Screenplay in 2017 for Ogres [+see also:
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film profile], and also on the writing team for films such as The Sixth Child [+see also:
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film profile] and Magnetic Beats [+see also:
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interview: Vincent Maël Cardona
film profile]) and Elie Wajeman (A Night Doctor), the script (which won the Grand Prix at the 2025 Screenplay Awards and also partook in the Groupe Ouest Annual Selection) revolves around Shana, a woman in her early thirties who is trying to navigate her way between odd jobs to put food on the table, drug deals and an impossible love affair with a toxic thug, Moïse. To make matters worse, her Jewish Moroccan grandmother has just disappeared, bequeathing to her a family heirloom: a ring that protects the wearer from the evil eye. A series of misadventures then befall the young heroine, after which she will, perhaps, finally be able to make peace with herself.

Shana is being produced by Emmanuel Chaumet for Ecce Films (who teams up regularly with the director) and by Charles Gillibert for CG Cinéma, and is being co-produced by France 2 Cinéma. Having been pre-purchased by OCS/Ciné+ and France Télévisions, the feature has also secured support from the Gan Foundation for Cinema, the Cinéventure Sofica and the Procirep-Angoa. The six-and-a-half-week shoot sees Victor Zébo (The Book of Joy [+see also:
film review
interview: Camille Lugan
film profile]) in charge of the cinematography. The international sales and French distribution will be handled by Les Films du Losange.

As a reminder, Ecce Films recently produced Baise-en-ville by Martin Jauvat and Dandelion’s Odyssey [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Momoko Seto
film profile] by Momoko Seko (both of which were unveiled in the Cannes Critics’ Week, with the latter having also won an award immediately afterwards at Annecy), and it has Affection, affection by Maxime Matray and Alexia Walther in post-production.

(Translated from French)