French director Ladge Lee, whose first feature film Les Misérables won the Jury Prize at Cannes and earned Oscar and BAFTA nominations, has just begun filming his next Undesirables.
The film reunites the team of Ly and Les Miserables producers Toufik Ayadi and Christophe Barral at Srab Films, the Paris-based banner whose recent installations include Alice Diop’s controversial Oscar entry in France’s “Saint Omer.”
“Les Indesirables” brings back the entire team behind “Les Miserables”: Wild Bunch International for worldwide sales and Le Pacte for French distribution, as well as the pay-TV channel Canal + and Cine + that pre-purchased the film. Local public broadcaster France Televisions has also secured French free-to-air rights to the film, which will star promising newcomer, Anta Diao, and Alexis Manenti, whose brilliant performance in Les Miserables earned him the César Award for Best Male Cast. Newcomer.
Drawn by Ly and Giordano Gederlini (“Les Miserables”), “Les Indesirables” charts the journey of a fierce young woman, Habi (Anta Diaw), and a budding new mayor, Pierre (Manenti), who cross paths in a disenfranchised suburb of Paris. Habibi, a native of the suburbs involved in social organizations that help local residents, has become a political figure. Meanwhile, Pierre is a former doctor who has taken over the city after the death of the mayor and sets out to pursue his agenda.
Ayadi and Barral said the two-person film will chronicle the young woman’s liberation, and explore the unrest in a French suburb whose residents threaten gentrification plans. Although the film will have a political background, the producers have said that it will be more narrative than Ly’s first film, and follow complex characters who are “neither good nor bad”.
“Les Indesirables” also takes place in a fictional suburb, unlike “Les Miserables” which is set in Montfermeil, where Ly grew up. “Ladd tells a universal story that could happen anywhere in the world,” Ayadi said, adding that the “undesirables” are minorities from different communities who live in the suburb. “The suburb combines successive waves of immigration – the most recent is always seen as the most unwelcome,” Barral noted.
Diaw and Manetti also star opposite César Award-winning actress Jean Balbar (Barbara, “Les Misérables”) and Steve Tincho, who gives a lively performance in “Les Miserables.” Photographed by Julien Boppard, cinematographer for “Forever Young” and “Les Miserables,” Les Indesirables is set for release in February.
Sarab is currently behind Saint Omer, and Diop’s debut is based on the true story of Laurence Colley, a Senegalese immigrant (Guslagie Malanda), who is accused of killing her 15-month-old baby by abandoning her on a beach. The film won the Golden Lion and the Lion of the Future award in Venice from a jury chaired by Julianne Moore. Saint Omer has garnered rave reviews, including on diverse Rebecca Kiang called it “a quietly momentous French court drama that subtly but radically rewrites the rules of the game.”
“Saint Omer” is expected to appear in the long-form Oscars shortlist on December 21. Diop has participated in Q&As with Academy Award-winning filmmakers such as Chloe Zhao (“Nomadland”) and Laura Poitras.
Earlier this year, Mirage became part of Asacha Media Group, the streamer founded by Gaspard de Chavagnac, Marina Williams, and Marc-Antoine Dallouin.
[ad_2]
