2018 Annual Selection
Grand cru!
Tides are generous on the Coast of Legends!
Last week, the coastal village of Plounéour-Brignogan-Plages in Brittany (France) welcomed the filmmakers selected for LIM | Less is More – the European development programme for limited budget feature films. The filmmakers came from all around the globe to dress their stories up: Nepal, Malaysia, Egypt, Haïti, Lithuania, Poland, Italy, Greece, Scotland, Spain, Romania, Bengladesh, Sweden, Turkey and France. And just before they arrived, a short film shot and written in the local bar on the beach received the César for Best short film 2018 — writer-director Alice Vial (Les Bigorneaux / The Winkles).
And this week, work goes on for Le Groupe Ouest’s team, with the arrival of the eight filmmakers selected for its now famous Annual Selection.
Taking part to this 2018 cru are Nolwenn Lemesle and Yann Le Quellec, both developing their second feature film. Claude Barras, director of Ma vie de courgette (My Life as a Courgette), is coming on the North Coast beaches to develop his second stop motion animated feature film. By his side, as cowriters, the Canadian novelist Nancy Huston and the cartoonist Morgan Navarro. Neck and neck with them will be: Joséphine Derobe, specialist of Stereo 3D and preparing her futuristic film on the secrets of virtual reality; Guy Dessent, Belgian and Uruguayan developing a comedy; Holy Fatma facing poetic horror cinema; Eve Duchemin, a French who became Belgian, fascinated by the rehabilitation of imprisoned people; and Lawrence Valin who will get us to follow him in the dodgy area of Sri Lankan immigration.
To focus all these energies, the coaches will be on this first session: the Quebecer Marcel Beaulieu (scenarist of Farinelli), first and regular consultant of Le Groupe Ouest, and Atiq Rahimi, Afghan novelist and filmmaker (Prix Goncourt for Syngué Sabour — The Patience Stone).
Team photo © Brigitte Bouillot
More photos →
The laureates and their project
Claude Barras, Morgan Navarro & Nancy Huston – Sauvages !
Claude Barras
Morgan Navarro
Nancy Huston
Sauvages ! / Wild!
In an Indonesian forest threatened by the plantations of palm oil, MOAH, a young orangutan, sees his mother killed by poachers. The veterinarian of a refuge wants to send him to the zoo. It is without taking into account ALEX, his son, and KERIA, the young autochthon who found him in the forest, who will do everything in their power to make him free again.
© Photo of Claude Barras by Mehdi Benkler & and of Nancy Huston by Guy Oberson
V.V
Tom Evol is a European neurologist, pioneer in using technologies for the brain. With the V.L, a recent programme of Virtual Life, he would like to treat heavy physical handicaps, especially as his wife suffers paralysis since a stroke. Inert in real life, Ema rediscover the freedom of a virtual body in the V.L, progessing her paralysis. After two years and unstable improvements, Ema wants to stop the programme. Tom will then risk everything to save her.
Belgica Belgica
VICTOR (20) and his brother ANDRÉ (23) turn up in Belgium after the accidental death of their parents in Uruguay. If Victor has the Belgian nationality, his brother on the other hand doesn’t, because of an administrative ‘error’. They will have to overcome all kinds of situations to survive, get back André’s Belgian nationality and realise their dreams.
Eve Duchemin — La Vie mécanique
La Vie mécanique / Mechanical Life
Three prisoners who obtained their first permission are getting ready to go out for the weekend. Hamousin, old West Indian imprisoned for more than 20 years, will try to meet his family again. Bonnard, about forty, which has trouble with its confinement, will have to overcome his fears to make a good impression in front of his young son, a teenager he barely knows. As for Dembélé, a young person of the popular districts, with only an idea in head: take advantage as much as possible of his weekend to party. But outside, each of them will realise that they only have 48 hours to make contact back with real life and with their friends whose existence was upset since their imprisonment. And every minute counts.
It is not so easy to get out, but it is even more complicated to get back in.
© Photo Alex Dossogne
Holy Fatma — Zahra et les morts
Zahra et les morts / Zahra and the dead
In a small village, Zahra (8) lives a happy childhood with her parents Anouar and Yasmin. But her life changes radically when she survives a car accident which costs her father’s life. Disfigured, Zahra is looked up and down by her classmates and her mother, in mourning, unable to take care of her. To overcome isolation, Zahra takes refuge on the grave of her father and discovers a passage which leads towards the world of the deaths. She rushes there to see him again and to bring him back with her. Father and daughter are soon gathered. But when Zahra realises that her father will never go out, she decides to stay with him, even if it means condemning the world of the deaths which becomes more and more disturbing …
Yann Le Quellec — Señor Coconut
Señor Coconut
The life of a property management agent is not easy every day. For Albert Manchot, it is even the Way of the Cross: in spite of all his efforts to solve the problems of co-ownership, General Assemblies are Homeric and Albert Manchot ends always humbled. His boss, worried about the morale of troops, organises a boat & road-trip in the Archipelago of San Sombrero to reboost his staff. Once there, Albert Manchot, misses the departure of the excursion. He will find his colleagues the next day. On the island, Albert Manchot discovers a paradisiac beach. Ordered by an inhabitant to present himself, Albert surprisingly says: “I am Señor Coconut”, name of the hero of the book of his childhood. Actually, Albert is gradually going to disappear to become Señor Coconut. Señor Coconut, claims to be the owner of the beach, builds his “palace” and gathers around him a happy and friendly community. But changing identity is not an easy thing to do and Señor Coconut, named leader of the rebellion against the construction a golf, will face it.
© Photo Riccardo Olerhead
Guerrière / Warrior
Louise is an emergency doctor in Camargue (South of France) and raises alone her 12-year-old daughter, Sasha. She is starting a new relationship with Malik, a divorced father, when Sasha becomes the only witness of a bloody political settling of scores. Sasha is the only one able to help the police find the sleeping partner. But the killers also saw her. Sasha’s life is threatened, thus daughter and mother benefit from the witness protection system. Louise has to leave Malik, her work, everything she built, to settle in a new city with her daughter, with a new identity. The shadow of the threat is still hanging over and, Louise and Sasha are facing difficulties to adapt to their new life…
© Photo Franck Parisot
EELAM
In Paris, police lieutenant Surya Aubertin is named to infiltrate the Mukkapalahs, one of the most dangerous Tamil bands of the French capital. He is posed as a henchman. Disconnected to his environment, he starts to identify himself to those he must destroy.
