Monday 19 January will see shooting begin in Benin on The Outsider Within, the debut feature film by Zoé Cauwet who turned heads with short films along the lines of Le Grand Calao (selected in Clermont-Ferrand’s national competition this year) and who directed the Girlsquad series.

The filmmaker has chosen Guslagie Malanda (nominated for the Best Newcomer César and Lumière awards in 2023 via Saint Omer [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Alice Diop
intervista: Kayije Kagame
scheda film] and also at her best in The Beast [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Bertrand Bonello
scheda film] and Case 137 [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Dominik Moll
scheda film]) to play the lead role, with other eye-catching names in the cast including Soo-Hee Briffaud (glimpsed in Return to Seoul), Thomas Henoc Ouedraogo, Eliane Chagas and Joël Lokossou.

Written by Zoé Cauwet herself, the story focuses on 35-year-old Jeanne whose job is preserving dead bodies. Adopted when she was a baby in Benin, she’s never worried about her roots. One day, however, she happens to see a documentary shot in Cotonou where a fleeting apparition leaves her speechless: she’s just seen her doppelganger. Shocked, she sets off in search of this figure and finds herself totally lost under the scorching sun of a country which is alien to her.

The Outsider Within is being produced by Joséphine Mourlaque and Antoine Salomé on behalf of Mabel Films, in co-production with Benoît Roland for Belgian firm Wrong Men. Executive production in Benin will fall to Faissol Gnonlonfin for Merveilles Production. Pre-purchased by TV5 Monde, the feature film also enjoys an advance on receipts from the CNC, as well as backing from Eurimages, the Normandy region, and the SOFICA company Cinémage. Filming will last six weeks (four and a half of which will be spent in Benin and the remainder in France in April) with Victor Zébo (Orlando, My Political Biography [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Paul B. Preciado
scheda film], The Book of Joy [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Camille Lugan
scheda film]) heading up photography. World sales will be steered by Be For Films while the movie’s release in French cinemas will be managed by Paname Distribution.

For the record, Mabel Films recently gave us Drifting Laurent by Léo Couture, Mattéo Eustachon and Anton Balekdjian, which was unveiled back in May in Cannes’ ACID line-up, which was nominated for the Best French Film of the Year Louis-Delluc Award, and which Arizona Distribution are launching in French cinemas on 31 December.