13/07/2010

Flemish director Miel Van Hoogenbemt starts shooting his third feature, Fils Unique, in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg today. The film is his second French-language effort after his debut, Miss Montigny [+see also:
trailer
film profile], of 2005. The lead actress from that film, Sophie Quinton, is again part of the cast.

Written by the director and Dominique Sampiero (regular co-writer of Bertrand Tavernier’s films), Fils Unique (“Only Son”) tells the story of a divorced taxi driver from the north of France, who is asked by his mother, who has just been diagnosed with cancer, to take in his cantankerous father, a man he has not spoken to in ten years.

Laurent Capelluto (A Christmas Tale [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile]) will play the 40-something son, with Patrick Chesnais ( Not Here to Be Loved [+see also:
trailer
film profile]) taking on the role of the father.

Cinematographer Virginie Saint-Martin will shoot on locations in Luxembourg and Lille, France, where the story is set.

“The film is again a family chronicle, like my first film,” explained Van Hoogenbemt to Cineuropa, “though this time, instead of the mother-daughter relation of Miss Montigny, we get a three-way father-mother-son relationship”.

Van Hoogenbemt’s second feature was the successful Flemish dramatic comedy A Perfect Match, about the relationship of a recently retired teacher with his young Romanian cleaning lady.

Fils Unique is co-production involving Belgium’s Entre Chien et Loup, Samsa Film from Luxembourg and Liaison Cinématographique from Paris.

The French-language Belgian broadcaster RTBF is also on board, as are the Luxembourg Film Fund, the Communauté française de Belgique and the Centre Régional de Ressources Audiovisuelles (CRRAV) of the French Nord-Pas de Calais region.