13/10/2017 - Wallimage will throw its weight behind seven new projects in the coming months, including international titles as well as three purely local productions – a first for the fund

While Wallonia’s regional investment fund, Wallimage, often gives prominence to large-scale international co-productions, for its 86^th session it has chosen to throw its weight behind three 100% Belgian projects, which is quite extraordinary for the fund.

The first is the feature Megalomaniac [+see also:
film review
interview: Karim Ouelhaj
film profile] by director Karim Ouelhaj. Since his feature debut, Parabola [+see also:
film review
film profile], which came out in 2006, the Liège-born director has released no fewer than four other, often experimental, features staged by his own production outfit. With this new project, a thriller that looks set to be particularly dark, he will be banking on the company Les Films du Carré (Être [+see also:
trailer
film profile]).

Wallimage will also be supporting the new documentary being produced by Les Films de la Passerelle (a production company that regularly teams up with documentarian Thierry Michel). L’Enfance déracinée by Idris Gabel takes a look at the terrifying fate of immigrant children.

Lastly, Wallimage is backing a third 100% Walloon project, the documentary series H.A.N., which delves into the lives of the Rangers in the Han wildlife park. It is being produced by Agent Double, the new firm created by post-production studio Dame Blanche.

As for the international productions, the fund is supporting Plein la vue by Philippe Lyon, a French film majority-produced in Belgium by Tarantula. The cast of the movie includes Zacharie Chasseriaud, Ahmed Dramé and Isabelle Vitari.

Once again, the fund is also backing a genre film, Dreamland by Bruce MacDonald, a Canadian movie co-produced by Luxembourg and Belgium (Velvet Films).

We should also mention the support being provided to the eagerly anticipated series Les Rivières Pourpres, co-produced by Umedia and almost entirely shot in Wallonia. It is toplined by Belgian actress Erika Sainte, who is flanked by Olivier Marchal.

(Translated from French)