09/01/2017 - Étienne Comar will open the great rendezvous in February with his first feature film, which is about famous Gypsy jazz musician Django Reinhardt

The 67^th Berlin Film Festival (9-19 February 2017) will get under way tapping its shoes to the spirited sounds of the compositions by the inventor of Gypsy jazz, Django Reinhardt, the character at the heart of the directorial feature debut by French producer-screenwriter Étienne Comar, Django [+see also:
film review
trailer
Q&A: Etienne Comar
film profile].

This biographical title co-written by Comar with Alexis Salatko, and produced by Fidélité, Arches Films and Pathé, will concentrate particularly on the jazzman's escape from German-occupied Paris in 1943, as the Nazis also persecuted the Sinti/Gypsy community. The film's title role has been entrusted to Reda Kateb, who will be flanked by Cécile de France, Alex Brendemühl and Ulrich Brandhoff. As a screenwriter and producer, Comar has previously worked on such movies as Of Gods and Men [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Xavier Beauvois
film profile] and the more recent title Mon roi [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile].

For Berlinale director Dieter Kosslick, “Django Reinhardt was one of the most brilliant pioneers of European jazz and the father of Gypsy Swing. Django grippingly portrays one chapter in the musician's eventful life and is a poignant tale of survival. Constant danger, flight and the atrocities committed against his family could not make him stop playing.”

Django Reinhardt's music was re-recorded for the film by the famous Dutch jazz band Rosenberg Trio. Django's international sales are handled by Pathé International.

(Translated from French)