Having kicked off on 2 September, filming on Pauline Brunner and Marion Verlé’s first fiction feature, Miss Mermaid, is in full swing in Fécamp, with a wrap-date set for 11 October. Loosely based on a 52-minute documentary made by the directorial duo in 2019, this social comedy stars Aloïse Sauvage (notably well-received in BPM (Beats Per Minute) and The Sitting Duck, and hitting French cinemas on 30 October in Sur un fil), Thomas VDB (recently at his best in Smoke Signals), Alison Wheeler (This Is My Mother) and Annie Mercier (glimpsed in Cannes in The Balconettes and hitting French cinemas on 6 November in Louise Violet).

Written by the directors in league with Marie Eynard (Promise At Dawn), the story revolves around Fanny, a thirty-year-old woman from Fécamp who’s recently divorced and whose only take-aways from her marriage are a sky-coloured sofa, debts which she refuses to pay and a determination to never “start over” with a man. Fanny desperately needs freedom, but this housekeeper now living back home with her parents finds herself stuck in a rut. Until the day she crosses paths with Anémone, that is, a professional mermaid who’s passing through the area. Fanny subsequently decides to take the plunge and dive into the world of mermaiding…

Miss Mermaid is produced by Damien Brunner and Sarah Delmas on behalf of Folivari and by Vincent Tavier and Hugo Deghilage for Belgian firm Panique ! in co-production with France 3 Cinéma. Pre-purchased by Canal+, Ciné+ and France Télévisions, Miss Mermaid also enjoys support from the Normandy region, as well as from Procirep, Angoa and the SOFICA companies Indéfilms, Cofimage and Cinécap. The six-week film shoot is unfolding in Fécamp, with Belgian Nastasja Saerens heading up photography. International sales are steered by Urban Sales and distribution in French cinemas by Jour2Fête.

For the record, Folivari is currently overseeing production on the animated movies Prends garde à toi ! by Sébastien Laudenbach and Les enfants de la liberté by Rémy Schaepman and Léahn Vivier-Chapas.