16/10/2023 - Sammy Lechea and Zar Amir Ebrahimi are headlining the second feature from the filmmaker discovered with Until The Birds Return, produced by Les Films Pelléas

Actor Sammy Lechea (© AgencesArtistiques.com) and actress Zar Amir Ebrahimi (© Fabrizio de Gennaro/Cineuropa)

First clapperboard today for The Vanishing, Algerian filmmaker Karim Moussaoui’s second feature after Until The Birds Return [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Karim Moussaoui
film profile] (appreciated in Cannes in 2017 in Un Certain Regard, nominated for Best First Film and Best Screenplay at the 2018 Lumière awards). The cast includes Sammy Lechea (seen in The Channel [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] and who we will soon see in the mini series Citoyens clandestine), French-Iranian actress Zar Amir Ebrahimi (Best Actress award in Cannes in 2022 for Holy Spider [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Ali Abbasi
interview: Ali Abbasi
interview: Zar Amir Ebrahimi
film profile], noticed this year in Venice in Tatami [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] and appearing next year in the Italian-Israelian production Reading Lolita in Tehran), Hamid Amirouche, Idir Chender, Nadia Kaci and Nassima Benchicou.

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Adapted by Karim Moussaoui and Maud Ameline (already co-writer of the filmmaker’s first film and nominated at the 2013 Césars for Best Screenplay for Camille Rewinds [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile]) from the eponymous novel by Samir Toumi, the screenplay centres on Réda, who lives with her parents in a bourgeois neighbourhood of Alger, and works in the country’s largest hydrocarbon company that his father Youcef, a charismatic and authoritative man, directs. But under this glaze of seeming success, Réda hides a deep-seated malaise: he lives in his father’s shadow and doesn’t know how to say no to him. His brother Faycal, on the contrary, leads an open rebellion against Youcef, and ends up definitely leaving the family home, leaving Réda to face his solitude and frustration. One day, the father dies and something unexpected occurs: Réda’s reflection in the mirror disappears…

Produced by David Thion and Philippe Martin for Les Films Pelléas, The Vanishing is co-produced by Arte France Cinéma, German outfit NiKo Film, and Tunisian company Nomadis Images. Pre-bought by Arte and Ciné+, the feature also benefits from support from the CNC and the FFA via the mini French-German co-production treaty, the Grand Accord Arte-ZDF, the South region (Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur), Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, MOIN Filmförderung Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein, the nordmedia-Film-und Mediengesellschaft, the Red Sea Fund, Sofica Indéfilms and Cinémage and the Media Slate Funding. The 35 days of shooting will take place from 16 December in Marseille and in Tunisia with Kristy Baboul (Gold For Dogs [+see also:
trailer
film profile], You Promised Me The Sea) taking care of the photography. French distribution will be handled by Ad Vitam.

As a reminder, Les Films Pelléas currently have both Marcello Mio by Christophe Honoré and Les Inséparables by Sophie Bailly (article) in production, are about to start shooting Une part manquante by Guillaume Senez, and are currently shining in cinemas around the world with Palme d’or winner Anatomy of a Fall [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Justine Triet
film profile] by Justine Triet, which just came out in America and is approaching 1,2 million admissions in French cinemas.

(Translated from French)