Tuesday 21 July saw the first round of filming kick off on Hautefaye, Vincent Le Port’s second feature after Bruno Reidal, Confessions of a Murderer (unveiled in Cannes’ Critics’ Week and nominated for the Best First Film César and Lumière awards).

The cast is being led by Belgium’s Arieh Worhalter (the winner of the Best Actor César and Lumière trophies for The Goldman Case, at his best in this year’s Berlinale competition in Dust and soon to be seen in Le Faux Soir and notably in Foudre and Quo Vadis, Aida? – The Missing Part next year) and Guillaume Marbeck (awarded the Best Newcomer Lumière and nominated for the César in the same category via Nouvelle Vague). They’re joined by Belgium’s Patrick Descamps (nominated for the Best Supporting Role Magritte via This Is Our Land and The Restless, and recently seen in A Survivor’s Tale), Marc Barbé (recently well-received in Lads and in the diptych The Three Musketeers: D’Artagnan), and youngsters Marie Naïma (of the mini-series Ceux qui rougissent) and Théo Verdier (making his feature film debut), not to mention Clotilde Mollet (The Origin of Evil, Home Front), Pierre Meunier (One Fine Morning), Jean-Pierre Gos and Ghislain Décléty.

Written by the director based on George Marbeck’s book, Un crime de braves gens, the story takes us back to 16 August 1870 and the final days of the Empire. A crowd of peasants beat and torture a man for several hours before burning him alive. The main culprits were ordinary, everyday people. This is their story…

Hautefaye is being produced by Stank (Pierre-Emmanuel Urcun, Vincent Le Port and Roy Avida) and Les Films du Losange (who are also steering both distribution in French cinemas and world sales), in co-production with Arte France Cinéma and Belgian firm Wrong Men. Likewise pre-purchased by Ciné+ OCS, the feature film enjoys support in the form of a CNC advance on receipts, as well as backing from Eurimages, the Nouvelle-Aquitaine and Normandy regions, and the Lot-et-Garonne and Dordogne departments. The thirty-day film shoot will unfold in two parts, the first running until 13 August and the second in winter with Michaël Capron (who previously collaborated on the filmmaker’s first feature and who also turned heads with Mongrel) heading up photography.