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RELEASES France

Hold Back an outsider

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- Rachid Djaïdani’s film, a favourite at the Critics’ Week, challenges heavy-weights Something in the Air, The Hunt, and Capital

Film lovers will be delighted by the great European quality in today’s releases in French cinemas. These include Olivier Assayas’s subtle Something in the Air [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Olivier Assayas
film profile
]
(Best Screenplay in Venice this year – MK2 on 100 copies), Danish director Thomas Vinterberg’s striking The Hunt [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Thomas Vinterberg
interview: Thomas Vinterberg
film profile
]
(for which his fellow countryman Mads Mikkelsen won Best Actor at the last Cannes Film Festival – Pretty Pictures on 140 copies), and Costa Gavras’s Capital [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
(that premiered in Toronto and competed in San Sebastian – read more - Mars Distribution on 259 copies). But the real surprise is definitely Rachid Djaïdani’s Hold Back [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Rachid Djaïdani
film profile
]
, a favourite at the last Cannes Directors’ Fortnight (read the review). Released by Haut et Court on 63 copies, the film notably received the support of the UGC viewer label and that of the Autre Regard for singular works noticed by the programmers in the Gaumont-Pathé network.

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With great humour and freedom, Hold Back tells the story of two young people from Paris’ popular neighbourhoods whose plan to get married comes up against a taboo still very anchored in the mentalities of both their communities: A black Christian cannot marry an Arab woman. According to its director, “this film is a cry, a statement that bears witness to inter-community conflicts. But it’s first and foremost a film about union, even if I show how difficult it is to speak about love between different communities.” It’s a film that Rachid Djaïdani spent nine years to make. "When you don’t come from the filmmaking circuit, you are immediately sent packing and hear yourself saying that you don’t have the legitimacy to make a film. This is why I wanted to ‘undo’ everything: I didn’t write a screenplay and piled on the ellipses in editing. I also really believe in improvisation. I wanted to make a ‘street’ film, and not cinema to ease one’s conscience. I always knew that I couldn’t make beautiful images, shiny or aesthetic images, because only the truth interests me."

Also out in cinemas today are Claude Berne’s Hôtel du Paradis [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
(Zelig Films Distribution) and Hadar Friedlich’s Franco-Israeli feature Beautiful Valley (discovered at San Sebastian in 2011 and distributed by its producer Les Films du Poisson).

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(Translated from French)

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