Ils: at the heart of a nightmare

by Fabien Lemercier

27/06/2005 - Shooting finished this weekend after five weeks in Romania for Ils, the first feature from the duoDavid Moreau - Xavier Palud. Played by Olivia Bonamy and Michaël Cohen, this horror thriller, behind-closed-doors, follows the story of a young couple, French expats, (a professor and a student re-doing her thesis) living in an isolated house in a suburb of Bucharest. But one wild night rainy night will hurl them into a real nightmare of suspense, since the intruders are hiding within them.

Produced by Richard Grandpierre for Eskwad, Ils takes on a genre rarely exploited by French production but which is tempting more young French filmmakers. In the last few years, in different registers, various films have dealt with fantasy and horror. Among them, are, notably, i>Un jeu d'enfants by Laurent Tuel, Promenons-nous dans les bois by Lionel Delplanque, Maléfique d'Eric Valette, Haute tension d'Alexandre Aja ou encore Saint Ange by Pascal Laugier (also an Eskwad production). The productions do reach their audience, for example Brocéliande [trailer] (2002) by Doug Headline which disappointed in the cinemas but on video reached an audience three times bigger than much better known filmmakers. The last Cannes Film Market confirmed this tendency, since Ils was one of the happy surprises in the line-up from Studio Canal (co-producer of the film) with pre-sales from Italy (Vegas), Portugal (Atalanta Filmes), Greece, Russia, Yugoslavia (Padora), and Turkey. Set for 2006, the French release will be handled by Mars Distribution .

(Translated from French)