07/01/2016 - Acclaimed at Locarno, Venice and Berlin with his previous films, the filmmaker is currently working on his fourth feature film, which is being produced by Andolfi and sold by Jour2Fête

Filmed in six weeks between 24 August and 27 October in Kinshasa (DRC) and Senegal, Félicité [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Alain Gomis
film profile] by the talented Alain Gomis is currently in post-production and will be ready by next spring. It will be the filmmaker’s fourth film, following on from L'Afrance (which won the Golden Leopard for Best First Feature at Locarno in 2001), Andalucia [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] (which was discovered at Venice Days in 2007) and Tey [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] (which competed at Berlin in 2012). The cast of this new opus most notably features Véronique Beya Mputu, Gaetan Claudia and Mpaka Longi.

Written by Alain Gomis with the collaboration of Olivier Loustau (whose directorial feature debut, La Fille du patron [+see also:
trailer
film profile], was released in French cinemas yesterday) and Delphine Zingg, the story centres around Félicité, who’s a singer in Kinshasa and lives alone with Samo, her 16-year-old son. One morning, she receives a phone call from the hospital. Her son risks losing his leg if Félicité cannot scrape together enough money for the operation. So she throws herself into a desperate quest across town. But just as she reaches her goal, her son’s leg is amputated. All the enjoyment goes out of life… Félicité wanders around in a world of dreams, drifts away from reality… until love brings her back to music and life.

Produced by Arnaud Dommerc for Parisian company Andolfi with Granit Films (France) and Cinekap (Senegal), Félicité is being co-produced by Need Productions (Belgium) and Abbout Productions (Lebanon). Pre-purchased by TV5 Monde and Canal+ Overseas, the feature is also being supported by the CNC’s Aid to World Cinema, the International Organisation of La Francophonie (OIF), aid to rewriting from the Lower Normandy region, the Berlinale’s World Cinema Fund, the Brot für die Welt, the Directorate General for Development (Belgium), the FOPICA of the Ministry of Culture of Senegal, and the Gabonese Institute of Image and Sound. The film’s distribution in France and international sales are being handled by Jour2Fête.

Andolfi’s filmography includes, among others, Under the Starry Sky [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Dyana Gaye (which was unveiled at Toronto in 2013) and Kommunisten [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Jean-Marie Straub. This year the company will also be releasing documentary Le Concours by Claire Simon (which gets to the heart of the selection process for famous Parisian film school the Fémis) and is currently working on Album by Dyana Gaye, a project which was discovered in December at the Coproduction Village of the Les Arcs European Film Festival.

(Translated from French)