The final clapperboard is set to slam on 29 July for Queen Mom, Manele Labidi’s second feature film after Arab Blues [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Manele Labidi
scheda film] (unveiled in Venice at the 2019 Giornate degli Autori event and nominated for the Best First Film César and Lumière awards in 2021). Stand-out names in the cast include Camélia Jordana (awarded 2018’s Best New Hope César for Le brio [+leggi anche:
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scheda film], nominated for the Best Actress César and Lumière trophies in 2021 thanks to Love Affair(s) [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Emmanuel Mouret
scheda film], and soon to be seen in Avant que les flammes ne s’éteignent), Sofiane Zermani (better known by his rapping name Fianso, eye-catching in the series Savages [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Souheila Yacoub
scheda series] and Alger Confidentiel, and likewise soon to be seen in Avant que les flammes ne s’éteignent, as well as in La Vénus d’argent) and Damien Bonnard (awarded the 2017 Best Newcomer Lumière for Staying Vertical [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Alain Guiraudie
scheda film], nominated for the 2020 and 2022 Best Actor Césars via Les Misérables [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Ladj Ly
scheda film] and The Restless [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Joachim Lafosse
scheda film], and hitting cinemas next year in Le Bonheur est pour demain and Niki).

Blending social chronicle and bittersweet comedy, Reine mère paints the portrait of a Tunisian family living in France in the early 1990s  and uses comedy to explore questions such as the search for identity, generational conflicts and latent racism in France.

Penned by the director, the story revolves around Amel and his family who learn, one day, that their landlord wishes to take back his apartment within a few months’ time. As his eldest daughter Mouna starts to have visions of Charles Martel and their application for a new socially-funded home drags on, Amel has no other choice but to reinvent himself…

Queen Mom is produced by Jean-Christophe Reymond on behalf of Kazak Productions, in co-production with Arte France Cinéma, and by Belgium’s Frakas Productions. Pre-purchased by Arte, Canal+, Amazon Prime Video, RTBF and Proximus, the feature film is likewise supported by the Ile-de-France and Grand Est regions (where the film was shot in its entirety, commencing 12 June), the Eurometropolis of Strasbourg and the Wallonia-Brussels Federation. Distribution in France will fall to Diaphana.

For the record, Kazak Productions, who released Clément Cogitore’s Sons of Ramses [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Clément Cogitore
scheda film] back in March (after it screened in Cannes’ Critics’ Week in 2022), are also releasing Anti-squat [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] by Nicolas Silhol in French cinemas on 6 September (read our article), as well as overseeing post-production on The Good Teacher [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] by Teddy Lussi-Modeste (with François Civil heading up the cast of this movie co-written by the director and Audrey Diwan) and Zénithal by Jean-Baptiste Saurel (read our article).