Having kicked off in Lyon on 26 January, shooting on Bourreau des cœurs - Carine May and Hakim Zouhani’s third feature (after Rue des cités in 2013 and Save Our School in 2022) – is set to wrap on 5 March. The cast is led by Birane Ba (notably seen in All Your Faces, Athena, Spices and Lies and in the series Sentinelles), Zoé Marchal (mostly known for the series Class Act and hitting French cinemas soon in La Poupée) and Fadily Camara (seen in The Good Teacher and Black to the Future, and also hitting French cinemas soon in L’Arnaqueuse). 

Penned by the directorial duo, the screenplay centres on Moussa, a professional con artist who’s been in a relationship with his partner-in-crime Tania since his teens and who infiltrates the contemporary art scene to steal a Dogon mask. His target is Awa, a gallerist tasked with returning the work to Mali. Torn between his connection with Awa and his plans with the love of his life, Tania, there’s one thing Moussa must focus on at all costs: not falling in love...

Bourreau des cœurs is being produced by Jean-Christophe Reymond and Amaury Ovise for Kazak Productions, in co-production with Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Cinéma. Pre-purchased by Netflix and supported by the CNC’s Images de la Diversité fund, among other sources, the feature film (whose cinematographer is Clément Arenou) will be released in France by The Jokers Films. International sales are handled by Lucky Number.

For the record, Kazak Productions are currently overseeing post-production on Ce qui me mène à toi by Khalil Cherti (read our article - starring Nina Meurisse, Sofian Khammes, Géraldine Nakache and Maria de Medeiros), as well as on the co-productions Gentle Monster by Austria’s Marie Kreutzer, The Dreamed Adventure by Germany’s Valeska Grisebach, The Spiral by Italy’s Paolo Strippoli and Dua by Kosovo’s Blerta Basholli.