01/06/2012 - CNC supports first feature film projects by Justine Triet, Simon Leclère, Shirel Amitay and Belgium’s Xavier Seron.

The first advance on receipts committee of the National Film and Moving Image Centre (CNC) selected four feature film projects in May, including La bataille de Solferino (the Socialist party headquarters in Paris) by Justine Triet (directed the short Two Ships, in competition in Berlin this year) the production of which will be taken care of by Ecce Films. The plot follows Laetitia, a young single mother with two small children, but also an ambitious journalist tasked with covering the day of the second round of the presidential elections from the side of the Socialist Party. But on that same Sunday morning the children’s father shows up, after several months of absence, begging Laetitia to let him see his two daughters for a few minutes. Pressed for time, she refuses and drives him away, based on past violent episodes. What follows is a kind of score-settling speed chase in the midst of Socialist campaigners.

An advance on receipts will also go to Après la bataille (provisional title) by Simon Leclère (production Perspectives Films) whose main character Pawel, 22 years old, lives in a village on the banks of the Loire, works in the local factory like his father and grandfather before him and is convinced that he will marry his childhood friend Anja. Everything seems to be predestined, but reality turns out to be less predictable and more violent. As he loses his job and sees Anja distancing herself, Pawel feels like he is being erased from his own future. He can’t stand it…

The CNC will also support Je me tue à le dire by Belgium’s Xavier Seron (Novak Production together with French company Tobina Films), which is centered around Michel, who has decided to put his family house up for sale and to put his mother, who has cancer, in a convalescent home. But he starts losing patches of hair and a growth appears on his chest. The doctor assures him that it’s benign, but suggests he take a blood test. And now Michel is sure: he’s had it…

The beneficiaries of this session of the advance also include Shirel Amitay’s Atlit (production Les Films du Poisson), assistant director to Jacques Rivette’s last four films, as well as to Claire Simon, Pascal Bonitzer and Cédric Kahn.

(Translated from French)