05/07/2019 - Vincent Dedienne and Catherine Deneuve lead the cast of Hugo Benamozig and David Caviglioli’s first feature film, a 22h22 and WY production sold by Indie Sales

Actor Vincent Dedienne and actress Catherine Deneuve

Following seven weeks of work on the island of Reunion, Hugo Benamozig and David Caviglioli have wrapped filming on their first full-length film: Welcome To The Jungle [+see also:
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trailer
film profile]. Leading the cast of this adventure comedy are Vincent Dedienne (the well-known humourist who hit French cinemas at the beginning of the year in Our Happy Holiday [+see also:
trailer
film profile] and whom we’ll soon be seeing in L’Étreinte) and global icon Catherine Deneuve (nominated Best Actress at the Oscars in 1993 and winner of a Special Award in Cannes 2008, a Silver Bear in Berlin in 2002 and a Volpi Cup in Venice in 1998; she was well received in Berlin this year in Farewell to the Night [+see also:
film review
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interview: André Téchiné
film profile], she’s due to tour French cinemas from 4 September in Cédric Kahn’s Happy Birthday [+see also:
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trailer
film profile] and she’ll be making a further appearance, this time in The Truth by Hirokazu Kore-eda). The picture will also star Alice Belaïdi (French Women [+see also:
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film profile], and in terms of series, season 2 of The Bureau, and Hippocrate) and Jonathan Cohen (White As Snow [+see also:
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interview: Mikhaël Hers
film profile], All Three of Us [+see also:
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film profile]).

Written by the two directors, the story follows in the footsteps of Eliott, a young and naive intrepid adventurer who sets off for Guyana in search of the mysterious Otopi people, an Indian tribe who live hidden in the Amazon forest. He’s convinced he’s headed to a paradise on earth, but he’s wrong. The Otopis are not well-behaved savages. They’re a group of jungle gangsters, led by Albertine, a difficult character who makes deals with gold traffickers. In the deepest depths of this Amazonian ghetto, Eliott will lose his illusions and find himself face to face with his own worst enemy: his mother, the despotic Chantal de Bellabre who, accompanied by the chief of the local police force, is following his every move. The jungle had better watch out…

Produced by Léonard Glowinski on behalf of 22h22 and Wassim Béji for WY Productions, Welcome To The Jungle is co-produced by Apollo Films and has been pre-purchased by OCS and Ciné+. It was shot over seven weeks in Reunion Island. French distribution will be managed by Apollo Films, while international sales are in the hands of Indie Sales.

For the record, Olivier Abbou’s Get In [+see also:
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film profile] is also in post-production with 22h22, while WY Productions is currently shooting Kandisha [+see also:
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film profile] by Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury.

(Translated from French)