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PRODUCTION France

Christophe Barratier starts filming L'esprit d'équipe

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- The director of The Chorus dives into the explosive story of trader Jérôme Kerviel. A Galatée production sold by Le Pacte

Christophe Barratier starts filming L'esprit d'équipe
Director Christophe Barratier

Last Wednesday, eight weeks of filming started on Christophe Barratier’s fourth feature film: L'esprit d'équipe [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
. With his previous films including The Chorus [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
(which pulled in 8.6 million admissions in France in 2004), Faubourg 36 [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
(1.3 million viewers in 2008) and La nouvelle guerre des boutons [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
(1.5 million viewers in 2011), this time the filmmaker has gone for a highly contemporary topic, revisiting an affair which hit global finance headlines in 2008 when French bank Société Générale discovered huge losses that had been concealed by trader Jérôme Kerviel, triggering a crisis which led to a court case, at the end of which the trader was given a prison sentence and ordered to pay damages and interest of €4.9 billion (an amount that was repealed when the sentence was appealed). It is worth noting that while Kerviel owned up to his crimes, he consistently maintained that the bank was aware of his risky activities and "profited" from the outcome of the crisis, charging him with losses that he wasn't directly responsible for.

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The cast of L'esprit d'équipe features Arthur Dupont (who was nominated for the César Award for Most Promising Actor in 2011 for his role in Bus Palladium [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
and has had acclaimed roles in Mobile Home [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
, Under the Rainbow [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
and Haute Cuisine [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
), François-Xavier Demaison (who was nominated for the César Award for Best Actor for his role in Coluche, l'histoire d'un mec [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
, who contributed outstanding performances to Comme des frères [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
and Second Chance [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
, and who we will see on the big screen in autumn in La macchinazione [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
by Davide Grieco - read the article) and Sabrina Ouazani (who rose to fame for her role in Games of Love and Chance [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
, and has since been in films such as The Past [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
, Qu'Allah bénisse la France [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
and The Source [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
).

Written by Christophe Barratier and Laurent Turner (who was nominated for the Lumière Award for Best Screenplay in 2014 for 9 Month Stretch [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
), the story explores the secrets behind the infernal chain of events that took place between 2000 and 2008 and led Jérôme Kerviel down the path to disaster, turning him from a complete nobody into the perpetrator of the biggest trading fraud of all time overnight.

Produced by Jacques Perrin and Nicolas Mauvernay for Galatée Films, L'esprit d'équipe is being co-produced by France 2 Cinéma, Logline Studios, Mizar Films, Gecko Films and Outside Films. The film has also been pre-purchased by Canal+ and Ciné+, and is receiving backing from the Sofica (a film and audiovisual industry finance company) CinéVenture. Filming will take place in the Ile-de-France and Brittany regions. Distribution in France and international sales will be handled by Le Pacte.

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(Translated from French)

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