14/01/2013 - Cameras rolling in February on three continents for the director’s first feature film, Des étoiles, casting Souleymane Seye N’Diaye, Ralph Amoussou and Maya Sansa

According to our sources, shooting of the first feature film (Des Etoiles) by Franco-Senegalese director Dyana Gaye will begin in Turin, Italy, on February 4^th. Widely noticed for her short films Deweneti (“Prix spécial du jury” in Clermont-Ferrand in 2007) and Un transport en commun (nominated for the 2011 César for short films, and screened at the Sundance Festival and in Locarno and Toronto), Dyana Gaye has compiled a cast featuring Souleymane Seye N’Diaye (The Pirogue [+see also:
trailer
film profile]), Babacar M’Baye Fall, Ralph Amoussou (Diaz : Don’t Clean Up This Blood [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Daniele Vicari
film profile]), Italian actress Maya Sansa (Bella Addormentata [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Marco Bellocchio
film profile]), Mata Gabin,Andreï Zayats and Marième Demba Ly.

Written by the director with Cécile Vargaftig, the screenplay follows the destinies of Sophie, Aboulaye and Thierno, in a season spent in Turin, Dakar and New York. Their destinies are, in fact, intertwined and bounce off each other, sketching out a lively constellation of exile. For her husband's funeral, New Yorker Mame Amy comes back to Dakar accompanied by her son, Thierno, aged 19, on his first trip to Africa. Sophie, 24, leaves Dakar to join her husband Aboulaye in Turin. But in the meantime, Aboulaye has arrived in New York with his cousin, Serigne, through a network of people traffickers. As days go by, connections build between the characters in these very different towns, nevertheless united under the same starry sky. 

Produced by Arnaud Dommerc for Andolfi Production, Des Etoiles benefits from co-production with Centrale Electrique, Cinekap (Senegal) and MG Productions (Belgium), as well as support from the CNC's advance on receipts, the Groupama Gan Foundation for the Cinema, the Fond Francophone de Production Audiovisuelle du Sud and the Procirep. Filming will end on April 3^rd. As a reminder, the project was selected last year by the Atelier of the Cinéfondation at the Cannes Film Festival. Distribution in French theatres will be managed by Haut et Court and international sales by Films Distribution.

Andolfi is also preparing for the future with, among other things, 21 nuits avec Pattie by Jean-Marie and Arnaud Larrieu (screenplay undergoing completion – shooting in 2014), L’amour idéal by Dima El Horr (a kind of rock’n roll Sex in the City in Beirut, co-written by Raphaëlle Desplechin, with shooting scheduled for autumn 2013 or spring 2014), and the comedy sketch film Les Utopies amoureuses (with one part already produced by the Larrieu brothers, another being filmed by Mathieu Amalric, and the last one by Alain Guiraudie still to come).

(Translated from French)