An advance on receipts from the CNC for Chouf by Karim Dridi
- The CNC will also back films by Bouli Lanners, Jacques Doillon, Eugène Green, Chad Chenouga and Nicolas Saada
Six feature-film projects have been selected during the fourth 2014 session of the CNC’s advance on receipts second committee. Among them is Chouf [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Karim Dridi. Having risen to fame in competition at Venice in 1994 with Pigalle (also nominated for the César Award for Best Debut in 1996), the filmmaker went on to direct Bye-Bye (selected in Un Certain Regard at Cannes), Hors jeu (in competition at Locarno in 1998), the musical feature Cuba Feliz (Directors’ Fortnight 2000), Rage (Berlinale Panorama 2003) and Khamsa (screened at Locarno and at Toronto in 2007), before “losing his way” with The Last Flight [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (2009), a mainstream project that was too great a departure for him.
Written by Dridi himself, the story of Chouf revolves around Sofiane, a brilliant 20-year-old student who has come back to his birthplace of Marseille for his university holidays. But his drug-dealer brother is gunned down before his very eyes. Sofiane then abandons his studies and infiltrates the drug ring, prepared to do whatever it takes to avenge his death. He quickly rises up the ranks and sets himself up as the right-hand man of the kingpin, Réda. Ensnared by the inescapable pattern of the drug business, Sofiane gets caught in a downward spiral of violence. Will he go so far as to sacrifice his family, his teenage love and his very soul to find his brother’s murderer?
Produced by Jean Bréhat for Tessalit Productions, Chouf will be shot in spring 2015.
The CNC’s advance on receipts also picked Les premiers, les derniers by Belgian director Bouli Lanners (produced by Catherine Bozorgan for ADCB Films), Des jours redoutables by Jacques Doillon (which does not have a producer as yet), Fils de Joseph by Eugène Green (produced by Coffee and Films), De toutes mes forces [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Chad Chenouga (TS Productions) and Taj Mahal [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Nicolas Saada
film profile] by Nicolas Saada (Agat Films).
(Translated from French)
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