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PRODUCTION / FUNDING France

Shooting has wrapped on Divertimento

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- Oulaya Amamra, Lina El Arabi and Niels Arestrup lead the cast of Marie-Castille Mention-Schaar’s new movie, which is produced by Estello Films and Easy Tiger, and sold by Le Pacte

Shooting has wrapped on Divertimento
Actress Oulaya Amamra (© Georges Biard)

Filming on Marie-Castille Mention-Schaar’s Divertimento [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
wrapped on 13 August having kicked off on 22 June. The filmmaker’s 7th feature-length movie after Once in a Lifetime [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
(a huge box office success in 2014), Heaven Will Wait [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
(screened on Locarno’s Piazza Grande in 2016) and A Good Man [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
(awarded Cannes 2020’s Official Selection label and presented in Toronto – due for release in France in October), to name just a few, is a fiction film retracing a highly unusual journey in the world of classical music, a trajectory speaking of integration and engagement, that of Zahia Ziouani, to be specific, who created the symphony orchestra Divertimento (which still exists today) in the 1990s and went on to become a world-renowned conductor.

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The cast stars Oulaya Amamra (who won the Best New Hope César and the Lumières Revelation award in 2017 for Divines [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Houda Benyamina
film profile
]
, and was likewise well-received in The World Is Yours [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Romain Gavras
film profile
]
, The Salt of Tears [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Souheila Yacoub
film profile
]
and Farewell to the Night [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: André Téchiné
film profile
]
), Lina El Arabi (the recipient of Angoulême’s 2017 Valois for Best Actress by way of A Wedding [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Stephan Streker
film profile
]
and soon to be seen in Les meilleures) and Niels Arestrup (recently seen in The Case [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
). Zinedine Soualem and Nadia Kaci are also in on the action.

Written by the director and Clara Bourreau (Fidelio: Alice’s Journey [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Lucie Borleteau
film profile
]
), the story immerses itself into 1995-1996 to follow in the wake of a young woman in her final year of high school. At just 17 years of age, Zahia Ziouani realises that her dream of becoming a conductor and her ambition of making symphonic music accessible to everyone, in any country, can best be achieved by creating a one-of-a-kind orchestra in terms of its diversity and make-up. Helped by her cellist twin sister Fettouma and in anticipation of conducting her very first concert, she creates the orchestra known as Divertimento…

Divertimento is produced by Olivier Gastinel on behalf of Estello Films (who are embarking on their first feature film experience) and by Marc-Benoît Créancier for Easy Tiger, in co-production with France 2 Cinéma. Pre-purchased by Canal+ and Ciné+, the feature film further enjoys the support of the SOFICA companies La Banque Postale, Cofimage and Palatine Étoile. Divertimento was shot exclusively in the Île-de-France region, with Naomi Amarger at the wheel of photography. Distribution in France and international sales will both be managed by Le Pacte.

For the record, Easy Tiger is also overseeing post-production on L'Homme debout by Florence Vignon.

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(Translated from French)

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