22/04/2022 - Awarded at the Cinemed Meetings and by Emergence, the director’s feature debut, steered by Tact Production, will begin filming on 9 May with Hamza Meziani in the leading role. The sales will be managed by The Party Film Sales

Final preparations are under way ahead of the beginning of filming on 9 May on Black Light, the feature debut by Karim Bensalah, noticed with the short films Les heures blanches (national competition at Clermont-Ferrand in 2014) and Le secret de Fatima (in competition in Locarno in 2004). The project, which won the main 2019 Development Support Grant at the Montpellier Cinemed and featured last year among the selected projects of the directing residency Emergence, will star Hamza Meziani (noticed in Nocturama [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Bertrand Bonello
film profile] and Les Apaches [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile]) in the leading role.

Written by Karim Bensalah and Jamal Belmahi, the script (which was read in January at the Angers Premiers Plans festival) centres on Sofiane. The son of a former Algerian diplomat, he has spent his entire life abroad. Now studying in Lyon, he falls victim to an administrative decision and is threatened with deportation. In the hope of regularising his situation, he accepts to temporarily work for a Muslim funeral home. Confused about his own identity, uncomfortable in his skin, rubbing shoulders with the dead will prove to be a enlightening path for him…

Produced by Oualid Baha for Tact Production, Black Light is co-produced by Les Films du Bilboquet. Pre-purchased by TV5 Monde, supported by the CNC (via the pre-production advance on receipts and the Fonds Images de la diversité), Pictanovo (Hauts-de-France region), the Doha Film Institute and the Soda Cinéventure and SG Image, the feature film will be shot for six weeks until 17 June in Lille, Roubaix and Lens with a final few days in Nice. The direction of photography will be handled by Pierre-Hubert Martin. The release in French cinemas will be handled by Jour2Fête and sales will be managed by The Party Film Sales.

For the record, Tact Production recently co-produced The Mercy of the Jungle [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Joël Karekezi
film profile] by Joël Karekezi (unveilved in 2019 in Toronto) and Valley of Souls [+see also:
film review
film profile] by Nicolás Rincón Gille (discovered in Busan and screened in Rotterdam in 2020).

(Translated from French)