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PRODUCTION France / Poland / Germany

Binoche and Demoustier star in Szumowska’s Elles

by 

At the end of May, Polish director Malgorzata Szumowska (33 Scenes from Life [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
- see interview) will start shooting in Paris on her fourth feature, Elles.

The cast includes Juliette Binoche (to be seen at Cannes in The Certified Copy [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
), Anaïs Demoustier (Grown-Ups [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
– Shooting Star 2010 – see video interview), Polish actress Joanna Kulig and Louis-Do de Lencquesaing (The Father of My Children [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Mia Hansen-Løve
film profile
]
).

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Co-written by the director and Tine Byrckel, the film centres on Parisian journalist Anne, who is investigating student prostitution. She meets Alicja and Charlotte, but where she expects to find poverty and distress, she discovers a silent determination to escape their condition.

The two girls’ clients enable them to continue their studies, juggle exams, academic competitions, bills, difficulty in finding accommodation and social demand for a standard of living similar to that of better-off friends. Their daily life is punctuated with paid sexual acts, which are often less grim and bring more pleasure than they imagined, but which mark the end of all innocence.

Anne is sensitive to the social reality of these students, but the stories of their experiences gradually start to affect her much more deeply.

Produced by Marianne Slot for Paris-based Slot Machine, Elles, which was selected for last year’s Cannes Festival Cinéfondation Workshop, will be co-produced by Zentropa International Poland and Zentropa International Köln. Shooting will take place from late May-late July with five weeks in Paris and two in Germany.

Backed by the Polish Film Institute and German fund NRW, the film has also been pre-bought by ZDF and Canal + Poland. It will be released in Poland by Kino Światet and in France by Haut et Court. International sales are still under negotiation and may be the subject of a Cannes announcement.

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(Translated from French)

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