09/09/2009

The world premiere of the first French horror film, La Horde [+see also:
trailer
film profile], was, in the best tradition of the genre, received with cheers and applause, both during and after its world premiere in Venice Days.

In the story, rivaling gangsters and cops must team up to fight a group of flesh-eating creatures in the slums of Paris. Debut directors Yannick Dahan and Benjamin Rocher call theirs “an action film with zombies”, and not a zombie movie. However, also in keeping with this genre, they admit their work as well carries a socio-political subtext, one buried deep within the story.

Said Dahan: “We didn’t want to give a message or lesson, because we don’t like that. However, we took the extremes of corrupt French institutions, the police and gangsters, and set them in a neighbourhood where we park those people we reject. So, in a sense, the zombies are Third World refugees and we are witness to a society that is alienating itself. But the audience should feel rather than understand that.”

Because the filmmaker’s main goal is to entertain, drawing out comedy from among the flying heads, blood and growing number of corpses. One of the scenes that got the most laughs is an absurd argument surrounding an amputation.

Both Dahan and Rocher say they bit off more than they could chew in the filmmaking process, due mostly to first-time ignorance. “We had fun starting the shoot, and in post-production. The 33 days in between, however, were hell on Earth because we were simply too ambitious for our first movie.”

The pay-off for all their hard work is the buzz already surrounding the film, which Films Distribution has so far sold to Germany, Italy (Fandango) and the UK (Momentum). A number of other European countries are also in the works and will probably come to fruition at the market of the upcoming Toronto Film Festival.

La Horde was produced by the filmmakers’ company Capture The Flag Films for €2.2m. Le Pacte will release it domestically in early 2010.