Having kicked off on 23 May, filming on La chambre de Mariana by Emmanuel Finkiel is in full swing in Budapest, where it’s due to wrap on 18 July. This will be the director’s 5th fiction feature after Voyages (awarded the 1999 Louis-Delluc Prize and the Best First Film César in 2000), Nowhere Promised Land [+leggi anche:
trailer
scheda film] (in competition in Locarno in 2008 but also the winner of the Jean Vigo Award), A Decent Man [+leggi anche:
trailer
scheda film] (which scooped the Best Director and Best Actor trophies at the 2015 Angouleme Festival) and Memoir of War [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
intervista: Emmanuel Finkiel
scheda film] (in competition in San Sebastián in 2017, the French candidate at the 2019 Oscars, and the recipient of eight nominations at the 2019 César Awards, notably in the categories of Best Film, Best Director and Best Screenplay).

The cast is led by Mélanie Thierry (nominated several times at the César Awards, more recently for the title of Best Actress via Memoir of War, and soon to be seen in Arnaud des Pallières’ Le bal des folles [+leggi anche:
recensione
scheda film] and Thomas Bidegain’s Soudain seuls [+leggi anche:
recensione
intervista: Thomas Bidegain
scheda film]).

Adapted by Emmanuel Finkiel from Aharon Appelfeld’s novel of the same name, the story takes us back to 1943. Fleeing the ghetto and deportation, Yulia entrusts her 11-year-old son Hugo to a 35-year-old woman called Mariana who works as a sex worker in a brothel. Hidden away in windowless cubbyhole, Hugo listens attentively to the sounds around him. At night-time, voices which travel from the other side of the wall frighten him: they belong to German soldiers. He tolerates the intolerable by reliving his childhood with his parents, mentally projecting their silhouettes as if in a shadow puppet show. And when the day comes for Mariana to invite him into her bedroom, he rediscovers a grain of serenity and sweetness…

La chambre de Mariana is produced by David Gauquié and Julien Deris on behalf of Cinéfrance Studios and by Olivier Delbosc for Curiosa Films, in co-production with Arte France Cinéma, Belgium’s Tarantula, Hungary’s Proton Cinema, Portugal’s Draco, and Israeli firms Metro Communication, Sunshine Films and United King Films. Pre-purchased by Arte, Canal+ and Ciné+, the feature film also enjoys support from Eurimages and from the Wallonia-Brussels Federation Film and Audiovisual Centre. The movie will be shot in its entirety in Budapest, with Alexis Kavyrchine (awarded the 2021 César in his speciality thanks to Bye Bye Morons [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
scheda film] and nominated in 2019 and 2023 for Memoir of War and Rise [+leggi anche:
trailer
scheda film]) heading up photography. Distribution in France will be steered by Ad Vitam while international sales fall to English outfit WestEnd Films.

For the record, Cinéfrance Studios are currently post-producing Serpent's Path [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
scheda film] by Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Niki [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
scheda film] by Céline Sallette (starring Charlotte Le Bon in the role of Niki de Saint Phalle), En tongs au pied de l’Himalaya by John Wax (starring Audrey Lamy in the lead role) and La colline parfumée by Abderrahmane Sissako. Curiosa Films, meanwhile, are helming post-production on Making Of [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
intervista: Cédric Kahn
scheda film] by Cédric Kahn, The Braid [+leggi anche:
recensione
scheda film] by Laetitia Colombani (released on 29 November this year) and the comedy Open Season by Frédéric Forestier and Antonin Fourlon (released on 20 December this year).