Christine Paillard has been shooting Billie Melody, her first solo feature film after A Smile Doesn’t Lie (co-directed by Chad Chenouga and released last year), since 30 June.

The cast stars Roschdy Zem (awarded the collective male acting performance prize in Cannes in 2006 for Days of Glory [+lee también:
crítica
tráiler
entrevista: Jean Bréhat
entrevista: Rachid Bouchareb
ficha de la película] and the 2020 Best Actor César for Oh Mercy! [+lee también:
crítica
tráiler
entrevista: Arnaud Desplechin
ficha de la película], nominated four times in the Best Supporting Actor category and recently acclaimed in Winter in Sokcho [+lee también:
crítica
tráiler
entrevista: Koya Kamura
ficha de la película] and 13 Days, 13 Nights [+lee también:
crítica
tráiler
ficha de la película]), Julia Faure (nominated for the 2013 Best Newcomer César and also at her best in The Beast [+lee también:
crítica
tráiler
entrevista: Bertrand Bonello
ficha de la película], among other movies), Bonnie Bouriche Troutaud (making her first feature film appearance) and Lilas-Rose Gilberti (notably seen in The Ice Tower [+lee también:
crítica
tráiler
entrevista: Lucile Hadžihalilović
ficha de la película], Consent [+lee también:
crítica
ficha de la película] and Last Summer [+lee también:
crítica
tráiler
entrevista: Catherine Breillat
ficha de la película]).

Written by Christine Paillard herself and Chad Chenouga, the story focuses on 14-year-old Billie who witnesses a violent argument between her parents the day before her father dies. She moves away to start a new life with her mother, a tenebrous beauty with a troubling personality, and her brother who’s in the throes of a teenage crisis. But how can she grieve and grow when she’s haunted by doubts?

Billie Melody is being produced by Florence Borelly on behalf of Sésame Films and by Édouard Mauriat for Mille et Une Productions, and has been pre-purchased by Ciné+ and France Télévisions. The feature also enjoys support from the Pays de la Loire region, where the film is being shot (in Nantes and the surrounding area) until 31 July, with Julien Hirsch (awarded the César in his speciality in 2007 and nominated again in 2012) heading up photography. Distribution in French cinemas will fall to The Jokers Films.

For the record, Sésame Films recently steered production on Sylvain Desclous’ Grand Expectations [+lee también:
crítica
ficha de la película] and Sarah Leonor’s documentary Ceux de la nuit.