23/04/2013 - A 7th selection in Cannes for Versus, Henri by Belgian director and actress Yolande Moreau will be screened at the close of the Directors’ Fortnight

Since 2007 and the selection of Voleurs de Chevaux [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Micha Wald for the Critics’ Week, the Liège-based production company Versus, founded by the other brothers in Belgian cinema (Jacques-Henri and Olivier Bronckart), has been remarkably regular when it comes to selections in Cannes, with 7 majority productions in 7 years!

In 2008, Versus threw a double punch by presenting Private Lessons [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Jacques-Henri Bronckart
interview: Joachim Lafosse
film profile] by Joachim Lafosse and Eldorado [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Bouli Lanners in the Directors’ Fortnight. Neither film left the public indifferent, and both seemed to foretell a brilliant future for the Belgian directors, an impression which was confirmed later on.   

After a brief backswing in 2009, 2010 saw the selection of Illegal [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Olivier Masset-Depasse
film profile], Olivier Masset-Depasse’s second feature film (Cages [+see also:
trailer
film profile]), again in the Directors’ Fortnight. The film won the SACD Prize.

2011 marked the return of Bouli Lanners to Cannes, a widely acclaimed actor and talented filmmaker, who presented The Giants [+see also:
film review
trailer
making of
interview: Bouli Lanners
film profile], already as the closing film for the Directors’ Fortnight.

Finally, last year, Versus presented Our Children [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Joachim Lafosse
film profile] by Joachim Lafosse in the Certain Regard section. Once again, it was a powerful movie on a serious and painful subject, which brought Emilie Dequenne the Prize for Best Actress.

Like a kind of programme contract, these repeated selections for the Directors’ Fortnight seem to emphasize Versus’s diligent work in following directors on a long-term basis, staying by their sides throughout their filmography. 

This year, Versus will accompany the closing of the Directors’ Fortnight with Henri, Yolande Moreau’s first solo feature film (she co-directed When The Sea Rises in 2004 with Gilles Porte). Yet again, she tells the story of an encounter between two lonely people, embodied by two marginal beings, Henri (Pippo Delbono), in his fifties, a lifeless man, resigned and slightly alcoholic. And Rosette (Candy Ming), mentally disabled (slightly), who dreams of love, sexuality and normality...

Henri is a Franco-Belgian coproduction between Versus Production, Christmas in July, Prime Time, the RTBF, the CCA, the VAF, Belgacom TV, with funding from the Tax Shelter. The film will be distributed in Benelux countries by O’Brother and in France by Le Pacte, which will also handle its international sales.

(Translated from French)