email print share on Facebook share on Twitter share on LinkedIn share on reddit pin on Pinterest

PRODUCTION / FUNDING France

Guillaume Nicloux shoots The Lockdown Tower

by 

- Angèle Mac, Clément Penhoat, Ahmed Abdel Laoui and Kylian Larmonie star in the genre film. A production bringing together Les Films du Worso and Unité, sold by Elle Driver

Guillaume Nicloux shoots The Lockdown Tower
Director Guillaume Nicloux (© Veeren/BestImage/UniFrance)

Since 12 April, in the Paris region, Guillaume Nicloux has been filming The Lockdown Tower [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
 (working title: La Tour d'Assitan) his 16th feature film after, among other titles, Thalasso [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
(in competition at San Sebastian in 2019), To the Ends of the World [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Guillaume Nicloux
film profile
]
(Directors’ Fortnight 2018), Valley of Love [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
(in Cannes competition in 2015) and The Nun [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Guillaume Nicloux
film profile
]
(in competition in Berlin in 2013).

(The article continues below - Commercial information)

Starring in this film, at the border between fantasy and horror, are Angèle Mac (making her feature film debut), Clément Penhoat (better known under his rapping name Hatik and revealed on screen in the series Validé), Ahmed Abdel Laoui (seen in The Specials [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
and Just Kids [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Anamaria Vartolomei
interview: Christophe Blanc
film profile
]
) and Kylian Larmonie.

Written by the director, the script begins one morning, when the inhabitants of a housing project tower realise that a black veil is obstructing all the windows and the front door of the building. A black veil which devours anything that attempts to go through it…

Produced by Sylvie Pialat and Benoît Quainon for Les Films du Worso (who are producing their 8th consecutive feature film with Guillaume Nicloux), and by Bruno Nahon with Thomas Morvan and Caroline Nataf for Unité, The Lockdown Tower was pre-bought by Canal+ and Ciné+. Supported by the genre film fund of the CNC (with a backing of €500,000 – read the news), the feature will be filming (for a total of five weeks) until 14 May in Aubervilliers, with Christophe Offenstein (winner of the 2016 César award in his specialty for Valley of Love) as director of photography. The French release will be handled by Wild Bunch Distribution and international sales by Elle Driver.

For the record, Les Films du Worso just unveiled Xavier BeauvoisAlbatros [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Xavier Beauvois
film profile
]
in the Berlinale competition (the film will be released in French cinemas on 25 August), and are behind the co-production La abuela [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Paco Plaza
film profile
]
, from Spanish director Paco Plaza (based on a script by Carlos Vermut – read the article - and released in Spain on 22 October 2021), currently in post-production.

Unité also has an enticing line-up of films in post-production, including The Braves [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Souheila Yacoub
film profile
]
by Anaïs Volpé, Fragile [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
by Emma Benestan, the documentary Tranchées [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
by Loup Bureau (about the war in Ukraine) and the co-production Casablanca Beats [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
by Nabil Ayouch.

(The article continues below - Commercial information)

(Translated from French)

Did you enjoy reading this article? Please subscribe to our newsletter to receive more stories like this directly in your inbox.

Privacy Policy