The beginning of July saw Hafsia Herzi wrap filming on The Last One, her 3rd feature-length directorial effort after the two movies she presented in Cannes: You Deserve a Lover [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
intervista: Hafsia Herzi
scheda film] (Critics’ Week 2019) and Good Mother [+leggi anche:
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trailer
intervista: Hafsia Herzi
scheda film] (awarded the Best Ensemble Cast Prize in the 2021 Un Certain Regard section). The production team are keeping the finer details of the cast under wraps.

Written by the director, who is loosely basing her work upon Fatima Daas’ novel of the same name, the story of The Last One revolves around Fatima, the youngest child in a family of Algerian immigrants. She moves from her suburban high school to a posh prep class, but, as she crosses this social divide, the desire she feels for women, and which she struggles to accept, clashes with her Muslim faith. Fatima must try to reconcile her multiple identities as she gradually distances herself from family traditions and begins her life as a young woman, discovering some brand-new codes…

The Last One is produced by Julie Billy and Naomi Denamur on behalf of June Films, in co-production with Arte France Cinéma, and by Vanessa Ciszewski on behalf of German firm Katuh Studio. Likewise pre-purchased by OCS, the feature film enjoys support from Eurimages, from the mini French-German co-production treaty and from the CNC’s Images de la Diversité fund, as well as backing from the Ile-de-France and Grand Est regions, where the film was shot with Jérémie Attard (who previously teamed up with the director on her first two features) heading up photography. 

For the record, June Films recently presented Emma Benestan’s Animale [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Emma Benestan
scheda film] in Cannes’ Critics’ Week, which is due for release in France on 6 November.