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PRODUCTION / FUNDING Belgium / France

Ann Sirot and Raphaël Balboni shooting Un détour par Diane

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- The Brussels duo are working hard on their third feature, toplined by young actress Ninon Borséi and produced by Les Films du Fleuve

Ann Sirot and Raphaël Balboni shooting Un détour par Diane
Actress Ninon Borséi (© Maël G Lagadec)

Production is under way on Un détour par Diane (lit. "A Detour by Diane"), the new film by the offbeat duo consisting of Ann Sirot and Raphaël Balboni. After a strong streak of short films (La Version du Loup, Lucha Libre, Much in Common and With Thelma, which won the Magritte Award for Best Fiction Short in 2018), Sirot and Balboni made a splash with their debut feature, Madly in Life [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Raphaël Balboni & Ann Sirot
film profile
]
, an atypical comedy about how a couple face one parent’s neurodegenerative illness, made on a modest budget but successful on the festival circuit. This was followed by The (Ex)perience of Love [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Ann Sirot & Raphael Balboni
film profile
]
, a burlesque neo-romcom that opened the Cannes Critics’ Week in 2023.

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However, it seems unlikely that the writer-director duo will reprise that very specific tone with this new project, which sees them tackle another highly codified genre and make it their own: the western. The story follows Diane, who desires men as much as she hates them. When she learns that her mother was raped in her youth, the shock runs deep. It’s a surprise, and yet it explains everything. Diane has only one idea in mind – to avenge her mother. Except that Mum has only one idea in mind herself – to finally become the woman she should have been. Between one woman who wants people to remember and another who wants people to forget, things get tense. And so while it's a western, it's also a revenge movie and a family drama - and surely one with their trademark dash of comedy and whimsy.

Diane is played by Ninon Borséi, an actress who rose to fame in their short Much in Common and who was seen again in their previous feature The (Ex)perience of Love as well as in Life's a Bitch [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Xavier Seron
film profile
]
. Opposite her, we find Sandrine Blancke (nominated at the European Film Awards for Toto the Hero and winner of the Magritte Award for Best Actress for Love according to Dalva [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Emmanuelle Nicot
interview: Emmanuelle Nicot, Julie Esp…
film profile
]
, seen at Venice this year in Silent Rebellion [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
). The Belgian cast also includes Lucas Meister (the series Good People), Jo Deseure (Madly in Life, Milano [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
) and Peter Van den Begin (Magritte Award for Best Actor for King of the Belgians [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Jessica Woodworth, Peter Br…
film profile
]
, recently in The Weeping Walk [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Dimitri Verhulst
film profile
]
), along with French actress Naidra Ayadi (César Award for Most Promising Actress for Poliss [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Maïwenn
film profile
]
, recently in The Origin of Evil [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
).

After a lengthy collaboration with Hélicotronc, Sirot and Balboni are being produced for the first time by Delphine Tomson for Les Films du Fleuve, the Dardenne brothers’ company, which has been increasingly supporting young Belgian filmmakers of late, and which, for instance, has just staged Adam's Sake [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Laura Wandel
film profile
]
by Laura Wandel. Un détour par Diane is being co-produced by Alice Bloch for Marianne Productions (France) and Julien Ralanto for Révérence Productions (France), with support from the Wallonia-Brussels Federation, the Tax Shelter (Casa Kafka Pictures), Be TV, RTBF and Proximus. International sales will be handled by Pyramide, which is also releasing the film in France, while Imagine Film Distribution will do so in Belgium.

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(Translated from French)

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