Monday 20 January will see filming begin on Sylvère Petit’s first fiction feature, La Baleine. The cast is led by Spanish actor Sergi López (awarded 2001’s Best Actor César for Harry, He’s Here to Help, nominated for the 2002 and 2007 Best Actor Goyas and for Best Supporting Actor in 2011 and 2021, recently well-received in Pacifiction [+leggi anche:
recensione
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intervista: Albert Serra
scheda film], among other works, and hitting cinemas on 15 January in Maldoror [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Fabrice Du Welz
scheda film] and in Oliver Laxe’s upcoming film that same year) and French actress Solène Rigot (nominated for 2016’s Best Newcomer Lumière via Orphan [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Arnaud des Pallières
scheda film] and well-received in September in Toronto thanks to Shepherds [+leggi anche:
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scheda film], which is due for release in France on 16 April).

Other names in the cast include Bernard Blancan (awarded an acting prize in Cannes back in 2006 via Days of Glory [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Jean Bréhat
intervista: Rachid Bouchareb
scheda film] and recently seen in The Count of Monte-Cristo [+leggi anche:
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scheda film]), Annie Grégorio (Mum’s Wrong [+leggi anche:
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scheda film]) and Moussa Maaskri (The Connection [+leggi anche:
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scheda film], Stillwater).

Written by Sylvère Petit and Nathan Le Graciet, the story takes us back to autumn 1985. A storm awakens the Mediterranean. A village is devastated, the harvest ravaged. The sea has deposited a whale on the beach. It’s dead and is declared a carrier of disease. With his tractor, his harvest trailer and three kitchen knives, ailing, misanthrope wine grower, Corbac, wants to save the cetacean’s skeleton from a sanitary blast of dynamite. Day and night, his daughter Mathilde sees the biggest of creatures paraded, piece by piece, past the church, the school and the distillery, awakening the villagers’ unconscious minds and stirring up violence. Mathilde knows her father: he’ll see it through to the bitter end…

La Baleine is produced by Serge Lalou and Sophie Cabon for Les Films d’Ici Méditerranée, in co-production with Upside Films, Belgian firm Iota Production (Isabelle Truc and Lawrence Absalon) and Spain’s Imagic Telecom (Jordi B Oliva). Pre-purchased by Ciné+, the feature film enjoys support via a CNC advance on receipts, as well as backing from Eurimages, the Gan Film Foundation, the Occitanie/Pyrénées-Méditerranée region (where filming will unfold until 14 February, with Michaël Capron heading up photography), Montpellier Méditerranée Métropole, the SOFICA companies Cineventure and Cofimage, and Procirep/Angoa. It also benefits from partnerships with the Pelagis Observatory and Paris’ Natural History Museum, and enjoys further backing from Le Groupe Ouest and the Francophone Co-Production Meetings, among other sources. International sales are steered by The Party Film Sales and French distribution by Jour2Fête.

For the record, Les Films d’Ici Méditerranée are currently overseeing Josep [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Aurel
scheda film] by Aurel, as well as raising funds for the director’s upcoming animated movie El portero. Documentaries in the works include An American Pastoral by Auberi Edler (the recent winner of the Best Director Prize in the IDFA), Animus Femina by Eliane de Latour (in post-production) and Vivants parmi les vivants by Sylvère Petit, which will be broadcast on Arte in the spring.