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PRODUCTION France

Aziza makes feature debut with La robe du soir

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Educational establishments currently seem to be the epicentre of French film production. In the wake of Laurent Cantet’s Palme d’Or-winning The Class [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Carole Scotta
interview: Laurent Cantet
film profile
]
(set to be released on September 27) and Christophe Honoré’s La belle personne [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
(“The Beautiful Person”, see news), Myriam Aziza trained her camera during the first two weeks of July on the Albert Camus secondary school in Thiais, near Paris, for her debut narrative feature: La robe du soir (“The Evening Dress”).

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The film – whose shoot will now relocate to the Rhone region – stars Lio (A Parting Shot [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Jeanne Waltz
interview: Pierre-Alain Meier
film profile
]
), young actress Alba-Gaïa Bellugi Kraghede (Call Me Elisabeth), Sophie Mounicot and Bernard Blancan (Days of Glory [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Jean Bréhat
interview: Rachid Bouchareb
film profile
]
).

Co-written by the director and Sophie Bredier (who previously worked together on the documentaries Our Silent Traces and Séparées), La robe du soir centres on 12-year-old Juliette (Bellugi Kraghede). Shy and insecure, she is convinced she is the favourite pupil of her French teacher, Mme Solenska (Lio), a woman full of humour and creativity.

But one day, when she goes to her teacher’s house in secret, Juliette sees Antoine – a slightly older and particularly handsome classmate – leaving. Believing that he is having a secret affair with Mme Solenska, Juliette starts to hate him and her tortured imagination runs wild.

Produced by Edouard Mauriat, Anne-Cécile Berthomeau and Farès Ladjimi for Mille et Une Productions (see news), La robe du soir received a €500,000 advance on receipts from the National Film Centre (CNC), co-production backing from Rhône-Alpes Cinéma and pre-sales from Ciné Cinéma.

The film is expected to be ready for release in spring 2009. French distribution and international sales are still under negotiation.

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(Translated from French)

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