05/10/2009

Jacques Gamblin (nominated for the Best Actor Cesar 2009 for The First Day of the Rest of Your Life [+see also:
trailer
film profile]) and Sara Forestier (to be seen as of January in Gainsbourg, je t'aime... moi non plus) started shooting romantic and political comedy Le Nom des Gens (“People’s Names”) on September 21. This is the second feature by Michel Leclerc, who directed J’Invente Rien (2006) and co-wrote the screenplay to In Mom’s Head [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile].

The cast also includes Zinedine Soualem, Jacques Boudet, Michèle Moretti and Carole Franck.

Co-penned by Leclerc and Baya Kasmi, the screenplay earned the Grand Prize for Best Screenwriter 2008 and centres on the encounter between Bahia (Forestier) and Arthur Martin (Gamblin). The former, a young, extroverted left-wing activist, sleeps with her political opponents to convert them to her cause. She achieves good results, until she meets Arthur Martin.

She imagines that with a name like that (a kitchen brand), he’ll be a tough one. But appearances are deceptive: family names and supposed affiliations to specific communities are often not very representative of identities that are formed more through lived family experience. The young, North African-born woman and the apologetic Jewish grandson of deportees discover this together.

Le Nom des Gens is produced by Caroline Adrian, Antoine Rein and Fabrice Goldstein for Delante Films and Karé Productions. The €3.4m budget includes co-production support from TF1 International (who are also handling international sales), pre-sales from Canal + and TPS, and backing from the Ile-de-France region (where the eight-week shoot will take place until November 6).

TFM Distribution will release the title domestically.

(Translated from French)