03/10/2006

Final preparations are underway before the start of principal photography on November 6 in the Parisian suburbs on Ain’t Scared, the debut feature by Audrey Estrougo. The 23-year old director will tackle head on a particularly sensitive and topical subject in France: the malaise of young people in the country’s cités and the violence reigning there between ethnic communities and between men and women.

Winner of the 2006 Junior Prize for Best Screenplay, the director will depict the lives of black and white teenagers in a suburban cité and the new turn their relationships takes when one of them is selected by the famous Arsenal football club, an event that exacerbates tensions.

Starring approximately 20 young actors, the film will feature Emilie de Preissac, Terry Nimajimbe, Paco Boublard and Eye Haidara alongside more experienced actors, such as Serge Riaboukine and Salomé Stévenin (Cold Showers [+see also:
trailer
film profile]).

Winner of the 2005 Talents des Cités competition, organised by the Minister for the Promotion of Equality, Estrougo, who last year made the short Une histoire, will not be making Ain’t Scared a politically correct film. The young woman has experienced the violence of the Parisian suburbs personally, as a victim at school of a gang of young black girls, pressures "that I experienced each day, in class, at break, after school, because I was white and I came from Paris," Estrougo told the press last year.

Produced by Bruno Petit for 7e Apache Films (the company of director Xavier Durringer, who will be technical advisor on the film), Ain’t Scared will have a seven-week shoot through December 22 and has received €420,000 in CNC advances in receipts.

The film should be ready for theatrical release in summer 2007.

(Translated from French)